After the recent talk about Mourning Doves, at noon today whilst eating lunch, lo and behold I noticed one was sitting on the telephone wires along the street. Looked a bit damp, and quite fluffed out. It sat for several minutes and then departed. A first in western WA for me, and certainly for my yard/neighborhood.

BTW, last week a friend and I went to visit my old haunt of Juanita Bay, and we enjoyed seeing the Tundra and Trumpeter swans that were there. Probably for many of you this is old news, but will share anyway that Ernie (volunteer ranger) said the Tundra had appeared in July this year and had stuck around. The Trumpeters arrived in the last half of October, and he said they usually don't show until December. Other than that, we enjoyed the usual Mallards, Green-winged Teals, a couple of Buffleheads and Shovelers, American Wigeons, Coots. There was also a single Redhead. Six or seven Killdeer were sunning on one of the private docks just east of the east entry to the Juanita Beach Park boardwalk. I'd never seen them up on a wooden structure like that before, so found it interesting. We didn't get there until after noon, and did not see many "small birds" at all. Will definitely be making the case for an earlier start, next time!

Dee Warnock
Edmonds
beachdee at hotmail.com