Subject: [Tweeters] Unexpected Yard Bird
Date: Jun 23 19:45:53 2014
From: johntubbs at comcast.net - johntubbs at comcast.net


Hi folks,
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I've always admired Jim Danzebaker's marvelous yard birds, which no doubt have a lot to do with his sage advice to 'Keep your eyes and ears skyward.'?? His byline proved its worth this evening about 7:00?as I was sitting outside on my patio watching the comings and goings of the usual suspects - Chestnut-backed and Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch, etc.? Right after a nice Wilson's Warbler came in to the small water feature to drink (first time for that species in the 'stream') I fortunately glanced up?in time to see?an initially-unfamiliar flight profile of a bird heading right for the house over the trees.? Then it clicked, and good looks in the binocs confirmed the ID - an American Bittern...!? Now there's a yard bird I never expected to have (granted it wasn't in the yard, but I count 'heard-from' and 'seen-from' as well as birds?physically in the yard).? It was quite possibly heading toward Nisqually NWR, which is only about two miles as the bittern flies from our new house in Lacey, although there are two golf courses nearby which have a number of ponds rimmed with cattails as well.?
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Last week early in the morning while walking the pooch, I heard the unmistakable raspy calls of two Caspian Terns flying over - also probably provided courtesy of the proximity of Nisqually NWR, which has these birds feeding at the refuge, usually viewable from the new boardwalk or from Luhr Beach just across the water from the delta.? I would not have seen those birds if not for hearing their calls first.
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Listen to Jim's advice...he's right!
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John Tubbs
johntubbs at comcast.net
Lacey, WA
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