10 TH Es, ASU DoGBsOrNe BUS ee sie 
Birds of the Great Northwest 
I. The Olympic Peninsula 
By ESTHER A. CRAIGMILE 
MANY YEARS AGO I visited the Seattle Exposition in Washington and saw 
steep hills being eroded by great streams of water. In July, 1952, I re- 
turned to the Pacific Northwest to spend a month on the Olympic Penin- 
sula at Bremerton, now bristling with great navy yards. The landscape 
had changed, but the birds had not. We drove our car onto the Kalakala 
ferry and crossed to Bremerton, accompanied by gilaucous-winged and 
Sabine’s gulls, distinctive with their black heads and forked tails. A few 
herring and California gulls were also observed. The hour’s ride afforded 
a magnificent view of snow-capped Mount Rainier in the distance. 
Near our stopping-place in Bremerton was a hill garden that proved to 
be a veritable bird haven. There were Douglas firs, dogwoods, cascaras, 
hemlocks, white firs, and madrone manzanita thickets growing on two sides 
of the garden. We found robins, house finches, California and Cassin’s 
purple finches, and flocks of goldfinches, both old and young. In August we 
found families of Oregon towhees and rusty song sparrows, as well as the 
Puget Sound (white-crowned) sparrows, and two kinds of hummingbirds, 
the rufous and the broad-tailed, sipping from coral bells. 
The casecara berries were the center of attraction in the garden during 
the day. Here, besides the finches, we saw the varied and russet-backed 
thrush, Western tanagers, and flocks of cedar and Bohemian waxwings. 
Black-headed grosbeaks and Bullock’s orioles were constant visitors. Many 
gnatcatchers passed through the garden in August, while the more familiar 
black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice called from the thickets. Western 
house wrens soon became familiar, and one breakfast hour a Bewick’s wren 
hopped the full length of the picket fence. The Northwestern flicker and 
the Gairdner’s (downy) woodpecker were frequently seen. A pair of Town- 
send’s solitaires frequented an overhanging bank on a steep hillside. The 
red-eyed and Western warbling vireos often called from the thick woods. 
On just one day were warblers abundant, and then I found the Audubon’s, 
Calaveras, golden pileolated, myrtle, Macgillivray’s and Townsend’s 
warblers. 
Beyond the garden, at the top of the hill, violet-green swallows nested 
in a bird house above garage doors. The parents dutifully fed their young 
in my presence, perching in the wires and flying near me without fear. 
The owner of the garage told me that his house cat was severely restricted 
while the young birds were learning to fly. I was to find another nest of 
these gorgeous swallows that summer in a resort on the Hood river, under 
the eaves of a summer cottage. There the parents busily fed their noisy 
young while people walked close by. We found barn swallows and purple 
martins on the wing almost everywhere along the Olympic Peninsula, to 
say nothing of the many gulls. The band-tailed pigeon and a few mourn- 
ing doves were observed; toward the middle of August many Pacifie night- 
hawks appeared. 
