[Tweeters] Green Lake Snow Bunting seems to prefer having birders around

[Ed Newbold]

Hi All, 
When I heard about the Green Lake Snow Bunting I was wondering if we birders would end up stressing this bird. However, the opposite may be more the case. We got to the Ballfield area at the SE corner of Green Lake and saw two people with optics at a distance and we went over to ask if they knew anything about the bird, expecting to hear that it hadn't been seen today. They pointed at a whitish object about 30 ft. away. 
We said "Thanks for finding it!" One of the two very nice birders, Chuck, said, "No, the bird found me." He had been looking for an hour or so when the bird flew right up to him and immediately began foraging. The whole time we were there, the bird seemed quite happy and quite successful in its food-finding efforts. 
We also heard the bird had been having some trouble with Crows and had apparently sought out the company of Mallards at one point. No doubt a great hypothetical danger to this bird would be a Falcon or Cooper's Hawk, so having deliberately-moving-and-respectful humans around could be a big plus on all of these counts plus another possible one, off-leash dogs. For the hour we were there off-leash dogs were a constant, but none of them came very close to the area the bird was in.  That's another way a birder-presence could help however.
All this by way of saying, don't resist going out of the desire not to disturb it. Also, if anyone just wants to see a gorgeous bird, this one qualifies.
Thanks all,
Ed Newbold 

Beacon Hill, Seattle 

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