I stopped by the Montlake Fill around 4:30
yesterday after coming back from a brief
flyfishing jaunt on the Yakima River (can't beat a
day that has both flyfishing and birding).
Walking in, I met someone told me that a Vesper
Sparrow had been seen that morning...pretty cool.
In one of the small trees south of Shoveler's pond
there was a single sparrow perched and a
photographer snapping pix. I got one from pretty
long distance that was not sufficient to really ID
the bird but it "might have been the Vesper" (or
a Savannah...) and then the bird took off. If
that photographer is reading this and his pix
confirmed one ID or the other, it would be nice to
know. BUT that is not the topic of this post.
Did manage to catch one green heron at main pond,
and have a great picture of its legs as it took
off just as I snapped and that was all that
remained in the frame. BUT that is not the topic
of this post either (nor is the handful of
warblers also seem). As I was almost back to my
car at the Urban Hort parking area, I heard a call
note in one of the thickets just east of Wahkiakum
Lane and stepped back to see a single bushtit on
an open branch. The note continued but it was not
coming from this bird. Then there were two more
bushtits on neighboring branches and still the
note and still not coming from any of these
birds. They flew off and were immdeiately
replaced by 4 more bushtits...still the note and
still not them. They then flew off and were
replaced by another 5 and the pattern continued as
another 5 replaced the recently departed ones and
then again flew off. It was like the bush was a
bushtit generator as a total of 17 bushtits
appeared and then disappeared moving to their next
haunts. The call note had stopped with the last
of the fleeing bushtits so I just figured it had
been one of the last group and started to leave.
Then a single bird alit on the branch that had
held many of the bushtits. I figured that maybe
the bush had revved up again and another parade of
bushtits was to follow. Then...the call note
again, this time clearly from the bird now on the
bush. But wait this bushtit had wingbars and was
more greenish than grayish...did not see any red
on the cap before this bird also quickly departed
but pretty sure it was a kinglet.