I spent the weekend up in Washington at the Western Field Ornithologists annual meeting. Over the course of nearly two full days of birding along the central WA coast (Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay) I saw hundreds of Black-bellied Plovers, none of which was a juvenile. Guess I've not paid close attention to the arrival date for juveniles in these parts. I would think they should be here any time now. Dave IronsPortland, OR Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 22:44:58 -0700 From: foglark@xxxxxxx Subject: [obol] Crossbills and fire rings (Fix) To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx The Red Crossbills photographed on the rocks at the Dee Wright Observatory and David Bailey's mention of their using fire rings brought back a memory. In the summer of 1982 I spent three months tent camping in extreme nw. Montana. Subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, western larch, and Boreal Chickadees and moose were neighbors. I built no fires, but crossbills regularly came to the humble camp site, where there was the obligatory old fire ring. One early evening I broke out the Coleman two-burner green suitcase stove and began to cook some rice. A group of crossbills, including White-winged, stumbled around in the fire ring about four or five feet from me, eating ash. As I watched the rice, one of the Red Crossbills flitted to the hood of my sweatshirt, which I had up for mosquitoes, and began singing. The rice started to try to boil over, so I slowly leaned forward to adjust the stove. I straightened back up on my camp stool. The crossbill kept singing. At high tide this early evening at Klopp L. in the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary I looked through a flock of 200 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and saw no juveniles. It seems to me that they begin to show up in the third or fourth week of August, but perhaps I'm remembering wrong. Could they have had a poor year, or is the glut of juvies yet to arrive? Are Oregon birders seeing young ones yet? One PEC flying over, unseen, was nice, and then across the way a kilometer or so at the mouth of Jacoby Creek were 180 BLACK-BELLIES, 80 SHORT-BILLED DOWS, 5+ RED KNOTS, and ~5000 peeps, about 10:1 WESTERN SAND/LEAST BEAST and with ~85% of both species juveniles. A few of the natty young WESTERNS have begun molting their lower rank of scaps, replacing these feathers, the darkest anywhere in the plumage, with neutral gray feathers with delicate darker shaft streaks. We got no rain out of the Oregon system. Subtropical skies, hot sunsets, and remarkably thick and humid air, but no precip. We could use it. David Fix Arcata, California 40 51 N 124 04 W Klamath Konundrum Occupied Gaia