A friend in east Renton texted me this morning to let me know she'd found a bird in her back yard that she was pretty sure was a young hooded oriole. I went to her place and got about a hundred photos... several other people showed up (invited) and confirmed, everyone is 99.99% sure this is a first-year male hooded oriole. Now, those birds almost never get north of northern California or Nevada; in fact, there have only been 7 verified previous sightings in all of Washington! This would be #8... my friend is passing the information, with photos, along to the people who keep track of such things - Seattle Audubon, the "rare bird" folks at Tweeters, and the ornithology folks at Cornell. I was positively tickled to be able to share this rare opportunity, and get some nice photos of this unusual visitor, especially since only a handful of people will get the chance to see and photograph this little guy!
