On May 19, 2014, we had a rowdy session at the ABC meeting, starting out with a spirited discussion on oil trains, terminals, and barges proposed for Grays Harbor adjacent to staging areas for a huge proportion of the world’s Western Sandpipers as well as several other species which must have this for their fueling station. Bruce Hoeft has been working on this project and urged us all to send postcards (provided) or letters in the next week to be in time for the public input deadline. Ed Pullen has posted a sample letter on the ABC site along with the address. See it here: http://abcbirding.com/birderspecificlettergraysharborcrudeoilterminals#comment-1152 ********************************************* Next, we all said farewell to Rolan Nelson who has been an integral member of our birding community for 20 years, leading field trips and teaching classes, and just plain fun to bird with. We expect a field trip sometime in the next year to Spokane to see what great birding he’s turned up in his new territory. ****************************************** Spring is busy birding, and we more than filled out our remaining time with trip reports! Presenters included Rolan, Ken Brown, Ryan Wiese, Ed Pullen, Faye McAdams Hands, Laurel Parshall, and Diane Yorgason-Quinn. ************************* Photos: Laurel Parshall laughs with her flock (click to enlarge):

ABC Vashon Field Trip: Ed Swan, author of “The Birds of Vashon Island,” led a full field trip to Vashon Island on April 29, 2014. He reported on the field trip to Tweeters thusly: Had beautiful weather for the Tahoma Audubon ABC group on Vashon yesterday. Numbers of individual species, especially the new incoming warblers, seemed really low and slow, but adding up the species seen I was surprised to find the species list reach 70. A few of many of the saltwater birds were still present as well as the incoming migrants. We had a few good highlights. At Pt. Robinson, we saw a first of season Western Tanager in the trees at the base of the bluff. On the radar towers, Steller’s Jays bunched up to attempt migrating across the channel to the mainland but gave up part way out each time. Yesterday there were only 10-12, but in some years I’ve seen as many as 30-40 trying it. At this time of year, migration means Pt. Robinson can have just about anything might show up, especially if the weather has birds on the move. Yesterday was beautiful but so calm it kept the birds pretty quiet. At Tramp Harbor, a female Black Scoter was still present and a leucistic crow that was a very pale light brown latte color. I’ve been getting lots of calls about this bird over the last couple of months but saw it myself for the first time yesterday. At Fisher Pond, one of the Pied-billed Grebes sat on a reed nest, a first time view for many on the field trip. ***************************** Click on Photos to enlarge. Leucistic Crow by Richard Smethurst, the remainder by Diane Yorgason-Quinn. That warbler is an Orange-Crowned, and the butterfly is a Pine Elfin:

THELER WETLANDS – May 1, 2014: On May 1st, John Riegsecker and Faye McAdams Hands led a walk around Theler Wetlands in Belfair on the hottest day of the year. They were joined by Diane Y-Q and Rosanne Becker and later by photographer Larry from the Kitsap Sun who did a photo spread featuring us and other users of Theler that day. A few winter stragglers helped pad out the count to 51. Two of us had an Osprey just after leaving to add to the count. **************************************** The Kitsap Sun photo spread is here: http://www.kitsapsun.com/photos/galleries/2014/may/01/scenes-from-theler/42501/#section_header **************************************** Highlights were 2 Virginia Rails, one seen well by all, plus a Marsh Wren in the process of housebuilding right in front of us. ***************************** Click on photo to enlarge it. Marsh Wren in nest by John Riegsecker, the remainder by Diane Yorgason-Quinn.