I once again, wanted to thank everyone who contributed a wealth of
information (as well as kind welcomes) to your newest birder on your list.
They were greatly appreciated! I understand I was not providing the correct
signature on my posts, so I will correct that on this post and all posts
moving forward!



WINDOW ACCIDENTS

My question is on window accidents. We've had two now in the last two days.
Both times the bird was stunned a little and had to be "coaxed" back into
flight and rescue. In both instances my youngest daughter coaxed them back.
I assume this is common? What is the protocol? Is it best to leave the bird
stunned on the ground? Or is it better to gently pick them up and coax them
back into awareness and flight? I assume I should get a silhouette or
something to help avoid the collision? In both situations the reason why the
bird hit our window was because of rapid escape. The moment the Jays show
up, the smaller birds flee quickly and some flee in the wrong direction and
hit our window.



COMMON SIGHTINGS

Our backyard feeder is flourishing and we see about 9 to 12 unique species
each day (the same 9 to 12 of course, but they all seem to be daily
visitors). I think because our backyard is attached to the West Duwamish
Greenbelt we get a very healthy selection of visitors. We frequently see up
to 15 Goldfinches feeding at the same time and they are by far our most
prolific visitor (the House Finch is second, followed by the Black-capped
Chickadee).



Our Downy Woodpecker has brought his girlfriend and we frequently see both
male and female now, and there is a Flicker couple who often visit together
now as well. It's fun seeing birds in pairs, there's something quite
romantic about this, that my wife and I enjoy!



My "life list" is now at 18 and the only "new" sighting I have for you is a
Black-headed Grosbeak. It took us two days of various sightings to identify
the bird. It was the same visitor each time and the reason why it took us so
long is because it looked so much like other possible choices. Also because
it was a juvenile, so it did not look like most of the "default" images in
our field guide or on iBird. Anyway that bird is now on my life list and
the same bird comes back about twice a day (although rarely stays more than
3 or 4 minutes and always comes alone).



Regarding the dove/pigeon sightings mentioned in the last post. The Eurasian
Collared sighting has not been repeated. However the Band-Tailed Pigeon was
spotted on more time. It did not come to the feeder, but rather perched on
our tallest tree for about 5 minutes or so, before flying southward.



YOUR ADVICE

Your advice has been invaluable both public and private. How friendly you
all are! I am so very grateful. I have taken much of your advice. I just
joined the Seattle Audobon (as many you suggested) and I will also be buying
some more field guides. I will also be creating an eBird account and
uploading my sight logs to them (I use the US Birding Checklist on my Droid
Phone to catalog all sightings and that can convert the logs to eBird
format). If you have sighting logs that work on a Droid Phone to recommend,
please feel free to send them my way).



My wife and I also finally bought "real" binoculars. We decided on the "low
end" binoculars from REI. They are actually quite superb for our neophyte
status and the price was very affordable. They have much more clarity than
the "sport" binoculars I was using before.



I apologize again that my posts tend to seek more information than provide!
Hopefully as the months progress that equation will change a little.



Thanks again for the lovely welcomes and advice.



Douglas Snazel, West Seattle

douglas at snazel.com