Carol --

In my experience with Common Yellowthroat (mostly Thurston Co.,
Okanogan Co., & eastern Montana), they are not so much marsh birds as
they are birds of dense brush. Now, it happens that riparian brush is
nicely dense because of its proximity to water, and there's sure plenty
of that in the Puget Sound basin.

Anyway...one place I study Common Yellowthroat is at the beaver ponds
at McLane Creek Nature Trail (Capitol State Forest). There are now two
or three singing males in the riparian thickets (Reed Canarygrass, Cat-
tails, and Spiraea) edging the beaver ponds, and when that prime
habitat is fully occupied, the late arrivals will set up along the
brushy edges of the pipeline corridor.

Another place I study Common Yellowthroat is at Scatter Creek Wildlife
Area where the creek cuts through Grand Mound Prairie. There, I'll find
a few Yellowthroats along the creek corridor in the brush and the Reed
Canarygrass. But I'll find many more of them on the prairie near the
Oregon Oak edges in dense Snowberry thickets under the oaks and out on
the prairie.

So based my experiences, at Point Edwards the dogwood thicket is just
where I'd expect to find any Yellowthroats.

Doug


On 3 May 2010 at 11:37, Carol Riddell wrote:

> Hi Tweets,
>
> For reasons none of us who bird around Edmonds understand, the Common
> Yellowthroat is not a common marsh denizen. One probably comes
> through every year, but regular birders estimate seeing one only
> every other year at best. This species has not been known to breed
> at the marsh, at least in recent times. We had a male this morning
> in an unexpected spot, in a red twig dogwood bush just below the
> public path at Point Edwards. This was a first-of-year bird for us,
> although we understand that Steve Pink saw one in the marsh a couple
> of weeks ago.
>
> The marsh itself was having a quiet migration morning. There was not
> much exposed mud. We saw one Killdeer, one Least Sandpiper, and one
> Western Sandpiper. The Least and Western were feeding right next to
> each other with the Killdeer just in front of them. So it made a
> nice scope observation for comparing and contrasting the two
> sandpipers. The yellowish hue of the Least seemed to enhance the red
> in the Western and vice versa.
>
> Yost Park was so quiet this morning as to constitute Deadsville other
> than its usual residents. I had to run an errand in Woodway after I
> was through birding and was compensated for my effort with a Varied
> Thrush and a Golden-crowned Kinglet. Most of my time was at the
> hatchery and the Point Edwards path so I'll only list those species
> seen.
>
> Hatchery/Point Edwards
>
> Canada Goose
> Gadwall
> Mallard (hen + 3 rapidly growing chicks)
> Bald Eagle
> Cooper's Hawk
> Glaucous-winged Gull
> Rufous Hummingbird (1 male)
> Red-breasted Sapsucker (1)
> Cassin's Vireo (1)
> Crow
> Violet-green Swallow
> Barn Swallow (1)
> Black-capped Chickadee
> Bushtit
> Robin
> Orange-crowned Warbler
> Yellow-rumped Warbler
> Common Yellowthroat (1 male)
> Spotted Towhee
> Savannah Sparrow
> Song Sparrow
> White-crowned Sparrow
> Red-winged Blackbird
> American Goldfinch
>
> Good birding,
>
> Carol Riddell
> Edmonds


*************************
Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at scattercreek.com
dcanning at igc.org
*************************