Dear Kelly and Tweeters,

I agree.?Lazuli Buntings?apparently nest either in or near my yard, and have since I've lived here, but I have never?seen any evidence of a nest.

Yesterday I saw one that I mistook for a white rag tied to the top of a fencepost. The blue and red were totally lost in the green background. There is something about the blue of the males that disappears when there are green leaves near it. This is to say nothing of the females, which are so drab and so shy.

The song is the one clue, really. They sing all afternoon here in the Upper Skagit.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch


>________________________________
> From: Kelly McAllister <mcallisters4 at comcast.net>
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Sent: Sunday, June 8, 2014 3:29 PM
>Subject: [Tweeters] Why do Lazuli Buntings appear on so few western Washington bird lists?
>
>
>
>Because they?re freakin? sneaky. There were two singing males at Greg Couio
park along Carpenter Road outside of Lacey this morning. I heard one of them
singing when I was walking along Carpenter Road. I could tell, roughly, where it
was but couldn?t find it in my binoculars. So, I went past the ?No Trespassing,
City of Lacey? property signs and walked around where the home had been taken
down and away. I heard a second male, seemingly responding to the first one?s
song. I looked into the dense shrub patch where it had to be perched but
couldn?t see it. I moved into better position to view the lower extremities of
the Lombardi poplar where the first male seemed to be perched. He went silent. I
sat still, for a long time. He eventually started singing. I crept closer.
Finally, I saw him, perched on the side limb of a tall shrub, singing his heart
out. I asked myself, ?How can a nearly iridescent metallic blue bird be do hard
to see??
>
>Kelly ?I walked to Cabela?s? McAllister
>
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