This morning at 11:10 am I saw a BLACK PHOEBE at the Stillwater
WMA. I had parked in the main lot nearest to the Stillwater store and
took a left (south) onto the trail. Just before the first bridge I
was scanning the marsh area to my right (West) of the trail when I
noticed a bird flying over the trail and landing in some of the
grass/reeds in the middle of the marsh. I trained my binoculars on
the bird and saw that it was a BLACK PHOEBE. I had good looks through
my bins for about 5 seconds and was attempting to scope the bird when
a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds began harassing and dive-bombing the
phoebe. The BLACK PHOEBE then flew off into some alders at the far
side of the marsh where I lost view of it. I waited around for about
an hour but to no avail as the bird never returned. Still a good bird
for such a wet morning's adventure.
I had woken up early this morning and decided that I need to get
out somewhere for a little birding. I was thinking of the Ellensburg
/ Cle-Elum areas but noticed that the winds were supposed to be really
strong so decided against that option. Then I noticed the posting by
Joyce Meyers regarding the LAZULI BUNTINGS at the Stillwater WMA and
thought this would be a good choice even though the weather forecast
was for a little rain this morning (in fact I got soaked).
My first stop was the Tall Chief Golf Course Area (which is no
longer in operation) near Fall City. I birded along the road and had
nothing very unusual until returning to my vehicle near the entrance
to the old golf course where there were two BULLOCK'S ORIOLES. I then
headed over to the Stillwater WMA and parked in the first lot closest
to the Stillwater store. My main goal was to look for the reported
LAZULI BUNTINGS so I walked out to the spot reported by Joyce in her
post (the grass is tall and was very wet - this is where I got
soaked). Once reaching the culvert it took about 10 minutes for me to
locate the birds but I then obtained nice looks at both of them.
Returning back to the main trail after this success I decided to
walk up to the first bridge in search of an AMERICAN BITTERN and this
is when I observed the BLACK PHOEBE. Birds of note seen this morning
included:

Wood Duck - Stillwater WMA
Virginia Rail - (Heard Only) Stillwater WMA
Band-tailed Pigeon - Tall Chief Golf Course Area
Red-breasted Sapsucker - Both Locations
Western Wood-Pewee - Both Locations
Pacific-slope Flycatcher - Stillwater WMA
BLACK PHOEBE - Stillwater WMA
Swainson's Thrush - Stillwater WMA
Common Yellowthroat - Both Locations
Yellow Warbler - Stillwater WMA
LAZULI BUNTING - Stillwater WMA
Bullock's Oriole - Tall Chief Golf Course Area
Purple Finch - Tall Chief Golf Course Area


Cheers and Good Birding;

Michael Fleming
Ballard, Washington
michaelfleming01 AT gmail.com