Season's Greetings tweeters,

I spent an hour at the new and improved Snohomish Sewage Treatment Plant
yesterday. I haven't been there since they started the improvement project
last year, and it looks like they preserved the west-end nicely. They also
have no signs, so I do not know if they condone bird-watching use of their
property or not...

Hundreds of scaups, shovelers, and ruddy ducks. Also, about 50 Bonaparte's
gulls were there; and as usual (same type of "habitat" as they frequent at the
Everett STP) they were in the primary aeriation ponds where there are several
"fountains" spewing brownish water into the air (mmmmm, lot's of good stuff
there).

The ducks were plenty nervous, and I managed to flush the three hooded
mergansers by merely looking at them with the binoculars from over 100 yards
away (hey, I'm not *that* ugly).

Several noisy yellow-rumped warblers, lots of song sparrows and black-capped
chickadees. I even managed to "pish" my first hairy woodpecker into sight!

Does anyone else out there visit this place (yeah, I know, *most* birders
can find nicer habitat to visit...)?

--
Michael Patrick - Staff Engineer
University of Washington, Radiation Oncology, Box 356043
1959 NE Pacific St.
Seattle, WA. 98195
mike at radonc.washington.edu
(206) 548-4536