Tweeters--The rain really suppressed bird activity this Tuesday and
Wednesday in Olympia. There was so much that Grass Lake lapped the edge of
Kaiser Road in a couple of places. On Wednesday at McLane Creek, Delphi
Valley Rd., an osprey visited at 0830 and stayed for half an hour, despite harassment from a
couple of male red-winged blackbirds. The red-wings appear to be in
various stages of nesting and breeding. We watched one female lining a
well-built nest low in the dead cattails S. and W. of the wood duck nest
box snag near the main boardwalk at the main pond. She used cattail down,
firming it into place by rotating her body within the nest cavity.
Meanwhile, another female brought strips of cattail leaf to add to a
nest among the cattails of the south-most pond. And an immature male
perched on top of a nurse stump in mid-south pond, making a continuous,
low chattering sound. A very early youngster? Certainly the first
immature red-wing I've seen this year.
And female yellowthroats have arrived. I saw one preening in the
branches of a small, downed alder, exposing her brood patch. A male flew
to a perch near her and lowered his head down toward her, then turned on
his perch, flipped his tail and flew off to some nearby scrub alders. She
continued preening. A rufous-sided (now spotted?) towhee flew in to sing
from the top branch of the female's alder. The male yellowthroat returned
a moment later and hopped branches mid-way between towhee and female
yellowthroat. THe female continued preening. THe male dropped down into
the cattails. A few seconds later the female dropped into the cattails
within 4 yards of the male.
At Bowerman Thursday, a 6.45am high tide--a low high tide which left
the flats east of the viewing area very exposed so that the shorebirds
did not congregate to roost, but kept on feeding. About 10-15 thousand
birds, mostly Western sandpipers and dunlin, with some short-billed
dowitchers, red knots, black-bellied and semipalmated plovers.

Brian Price pricebc at elwha.evergreen.edu
L3401B Phone: (360)-866-6000, ext.6743
TESC
Olympia
WA98505