Dear Tweets

Two VGS babies did not make it out of the nest. Something/one
(firecrackers maybe?) knocked the bird house down. One survived, but
died the next day. Many of the VGS that used to fly around are now
gone.

In the last week 1/2 the canal has been drained and so I have not seen
the Red-winged blackbird that is usually perched in the bushes above
the canal. There are a few Barn Swallows left, but like the VGS most
are not here now. I don't know if that is the canal water level/food
issue or just typical and timely Swallow behaviour.

Twelve to fifteen Vireos flocked to my backyard bath day before
yesterday. They are so tiny that four or five of them fit in the bath
at once, fly off to dry in the bush above and five more fly in to
bathe. The fifteen spread themselves out to filter in and out of the
bath at about 20 feet in the bushes above the bath.

My mystery feeder bird comes and goes infrequently among the Chestnut
Backed Chickadees and my regular Red-breasted Nuthatch. I did have a
yellow/grey bird (Western Tanager?) to frequent the feeder this past
week whom I haven't seen here before.

Flickers were seen ground feeding in the local park under the trees on
the first cool day we had this week. I've never seen one ground feed
before.

Michelle
Yelm
Thurston County
yelmbackyard at gmail.com