Hi Tweets,

Heather and I arrived early in Mason County this morning, in the vicinity of the cluster of houses know as Tahuya, to see Mountain Quail at Mary Hrudkaj's house on top of Bear Ridge. Mary was a most gracious hostess and did not disappoint, with a pair of Mountain Quail showing themselves off in her yard at about 7:30 am. The area was botanically intriguing as the top of the ridge had a large number of Madrona and Jack Pine trees. In addition to the Quail we had a dozen Band-tailed Pigeons, Mourning Doves, Black-throated Gray & MacGillivray's warblers.

Since we haven't explored much of Mason County, we worked our way through various lakes, none of which had many birds, but all had lots of people. Just after the turn-off to Dewatto on Dewatto Road is Tee Lake. While we were watching some Tree Swallows, a group of 6 much larger BLACK SWIFTS joined the fray above the road and above the lake. The fanned their tails at least 80% of the time and were soaring in circles about 50' above the treetops. Their appearance underneath was all dark. We watched them for about 10 minutes and then they headed northward.

Considering that I was actually looking for Vaux's Swifts, it was quite a unexpected discovery.

One other bird item of interest was that there is a large? (20-30 birds?) Great Blue Heronry on the south side of the mouth of the Tahuya River. The entire saltwater front of the inside of the hook of the Hood Canal yielded exactly one salt water bird - a Pigeon Guillemot. We couldn't even find a gull!

Good Birding,

Marcus Roening
Tacoma WA
marcus.d.roening at GSK.com
C: 253-988-8313

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