I'm recovering from a hard but enjoyable weekend doing some "landscape
gardening" at Montlake Fill. Highlights were:

2 Cinnamon Teal,
4 Blue-winged Teal
1 Lesser Scaup
2 Yellow-headed Blackbirds
2 Bald Eagles
Several Vaux's Swifts


Loosetrife Notes:

I started clearing the stuff form the main pond. The vegetation is thick with
dead plants form previous years growth so a lot of the new seedlings, and
some of last years plants are growing hydroponically !!! This makes them
really easy to pull out. I managed to get halfway in clearing a 60 foot
stretch on the west side of the pond - mostly removing plants from the water
as the shoreline is still pretty soft and walking/slipping on it would chew it
up too much. This will increase the shoreline available for duck, geese and
shorebirds by NEARLY 50% !!!!! Three people could easily achieve this in a
single day - food for thought, ISN'T IT........

I've also been working at the dried out pond on the SE corner and have
managed to clear about a third of the area. THis is a great place for all
sorts on invertebrates. I must have seen about a dozen different types/species
of spider and several species of ladybirds - hope that doesn't put anyone off
:-)

I'm off on my annual pilgremage to arctic Norway this Saturday, so I will try
and complete clearing of the shoreline on the main pond this week. A lot of
the plants are going to flower in the next 10 days. Does anybody have any idea
how long flowering takes - ie how much time is left before the plants set
seed and work on removing them stop.

Dennis: There were quite a few birders there over the weekend. None of them
asked what I was doing, so I'm pretty sure you could drive in there will a
bulldozer and not a word would be said. ;-)

Exhausted but happy......

Stuart
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#import "StandardDisclaimer.h";

Stuart MacKay McCaw Cellular Communications
Consultant Developer Oakhurst Building
Axys V3 14335 NE 24th St.
ph. (206) 702-5151 Bellevue, WA
fax (206) 702-5451 98007

stuart.mackay at mccaw.com
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