Amazing John !
I just documented the bittern to my yard list tonight around 7:00 also . I saw it flying over about 600 yards up and almost wrote it off as a blue heron . Obviously not the same bird since I'm in fall city and this one was heading due west.

# 67 for our yard.

Bird On !!!

Rick forsman
RjforsmanAThotmailDOTcom
Fall city Wa.

On Jun 23, 2014, at 7:47 PM, johntubbs at comcast.net wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Listen to Jim's advice...he's right!
>
> John Tubbs
> johntubbs at comcast.net
> Lacey, WA
>
>
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> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
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