Tweets - Friday night, I ended up in Westport only to discover that the
Westport Pelagic trip for Saturday had been cancelled due to deteriorating
weather. So Saturday I tried working western Jefferson County, which was an
exercise in futility. On the whole Jefferson County coastline, spending
hours on the beach and scoping off-shore, I found just 9 species of bird
on/over salt water - 3 gulls, 2 cormorants, 2 scoters, 1 grebe, 1 shorebird
(Black Oystercatcher). Land birds weren't much more prevalent. 6+ hours of
birding in Jefferson County yielded only 29 species total.

Clallam county, today, couldn't have been more different.

At the Elwah River Mouth, I found six species of gull, including a juvenile
GLAUCOUS GULL, a few THAYER'S GULLS, and a BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE. There
were also HARLEQUIN DUCKS and LONG-TAILED DUCKS. I think I had 35+ species
there, along with 20+ HARBOR PORPOISES.

In Port Angeles, I quickly found the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD on 11th St., and
almost as quickly found the ROCK WREN near the base of Ediz Hook.

At 3 Crabs, I thought I'd struck out, but as I left, I bumped into Tom
Mansfield who knew a local birder who guided us onto private property where
the BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON roosts. Later, I got ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD in
front of that same house. Then, Tom and I went back to the barn near
Helen's Pond. Tom's persistence finally paid off with good looks at 2
AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS just west of the weedy patch west of the barn.

Tom and I split up, and I headed west on Anderson Rd. There was a flock of
50 swans, all TRUMPETERS except for a single TUNDRA SWAN. I then went down
to the Oysterhouse, where I was able to scope back east and finally found
the two EMPEROR GEESE on the western side of the gravel bar that's between
the Oysterhouse and 3 Crabs.

Finally, I headed east out to the end of Schmuck Rd., where it hits
Washington Harbor Rd. It took me a while to find the flock of blackbirds,
which were all up at the top of a large cottonwood on Schmuck Rd. I pulled
out my scope and started sorting through the black "leaves" at the top of
the tree. 50% EUROPEAN STARLING, 25% RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD, 25% BREWER'S
BLACKBIRD. And then I spotted the male RUSTY BLACKBIRD - mostly black with
stained-oak face and breast, and a black mask around a golden eye. Bingo.

So an amazing day chasing other people's reported rarities. It was fun, if
a little surreal.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== http://www.marymoor.org/BirdBlog.htm
== birdmarymoor at frontier.com