Hey tweets, I've been recording 2012 bird sightings at the Fill and
wanted to let you know how we did this year. So far (and there are
still 14 more days in the year, including Seattle Audubon's CBC), we
have seen 163 species. This compares with our best year (2009), when
we saw 172.

In case, you're wondering, I've missed 9 of these, which is slightly
more than I usually miss.

There were two sightings that were firsts for the Fill (and mind you,
records of various levels of completeness go back to 1895):
Eastern Phoebe
Townsend's Solitaire

There were several sightings that were almost as rare for the Fill:
Tundra Swan (seen 6 times before)
Tufted Duck (seen 2 times before)
Barrow's Goldeneye (seen 4 times before)
Sandhill Crane (seen 3 times before)
Western Gull (seen 6 times before)
Barred Owl (seen 1 time before)
Northern Saw-whet Owl (seen 2 times before)
Olive-sided Flycatcher (seen 7 times before)
Western Scrub-Jay (seen 5 times before)
House Wren (seen 5 times before)
Common Redpoll (seen 1 time before)

Note re Loggerhead Shrike: I was certain that I saw one in the spring,
and I reported so to tweeters; on that same day, two photographers
went back and photographed a Northern Shrike. I've been thinking about
it ever since and would like to remove my sighting from the records. I
still think what I saw was a Loggerhead. However, there were two field
marks I did not note in the field: whether the black of the bird's
mask went above the eye or just through the eye at about the halfway
mark; and whether the bird had a white rump. These would have been
very good field marks to distinguish the two species. Ah well, live
and learn.

I heard through the grapevine that someone saw a BARN OWL. If anyone
knows the who, what, when, please let me know. I could also use
specifics for:
Townsend's Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Sora

Lastly, if you'd like to take a look at the list, you can go to www.constancesidles.com/birdmap

There you will see the complete list of Fill birds going back as far
as we have records. It includes the 2012 sightings. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com
www.constancypress.com
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