Some notes on "truly" suburban fledglings (On Finn Hill across the slough
from Kenmore).

We are happy to report two pileated woodpecker fledglings from a snag near
our house, a male and a female. We very much enjoyed watching them being
fed by their parents over the last week, with two heads crowned by pink fuzz
sticking out of the hole and screeching in apparent unison. The female
appeared more assertive than the male in getting food from the parent, but
the male would eventually peck at her - they seemed to be able to pull each
other off balance from the edge of the hole, as with too much pecking one
would seem to fall back in. The parents would fly to a nearby hollow snag
and drum (relatively speaking) quietly, I believe to entice the chicks out
of the nest. The female fledged first, followed by the male a day later.
All told, this occurred three months after the father first excavated the
nest hole.

We seem to have large broods of RB nuthatches around. One of their nest
holes is in the same snag (which has at least four holes of varying sizes),
near the top. One day when one of the adult pileateds was climbing up the
snag, it got too near their hole, and there were soon 7 nuthatches cheeping
in the branches at the very top of the tree. This is the most nuthatches I
have ever seen together.

Other fledglings, we have at least two broods of quail, one fairly large
already with about 8 chicks, and another with only tiny babies, with about
12 chicks. This is up from last year and the year before, when we had one
family with about 11 chicks. There are VG swallows in one of the two nest
boxes we put up this year. Also have seen young of CB chickadees, robins,
house finches, bushtits, song sparrows, towhees, starlings, cowbirds. Still
waiting for the other woodpeckers to emerge.

On habitat, this is the first year we have ever had starlings. The recent
spate of building in our neighborhood may have had something to do with it,
as the surrounding forest is turning increasingly to edge and more open
habitat. SIGHHHH... I am sad to say that I think we will be cataloguing
over the years to come changes in the bird population and variety as this
area gets built up. Never have seen a rock dove or house sparrow here. I'm
waiting for the day when I get that sinking feeling...

Still there are occasional surprises. One of our neighbors had a pheasant
come down into their yard from somewhere up the hill where we live.
Tanagers, black-headed grosbeaks, olive-sided flycatchers, western
flycatchers, Swainson's thrush, winter wrens, brown creepers and Wilson's
warblers are common and I'm sure are breeding down there in the ravine, as
are pine siskins (I'm pretty sure we have young of these too, but I don't
really know how you would tell).

One thing that makes it hard to figure out what is happening over time is
the apparently large fluctuations in bird populations from year to year, so
it's hard to tell what is really changing. For example, this year we have
had more sightings (or "hearings") of quail, pine siskins, pileated
woodpeckers, and western screech-owl, but fewer rufous hummingbirds and
cedar waxwings. Not sure really if this is just normal fluctuations from
year to year or actual change.

We have crows and jays too, but they don't seem to cause us much trouble. I
haven't noticed them picking on anyone other than the red-tailed hawks and
the occasional bald eagle that strays over from Lake Washington. Maybe it's
because the forest is taller and more well-balanced than in the city. The
crows hang out mostly in the tops of the taller conifers and leave the
songbirds to the understory and deciduous trees. Maybe when there's more
habitat to share and more food sources, the competition for space isn't as
intense. Or maybe there's just a better leafy canopy to hide their dirty
deeds, and I'm just not seeing them skulking around!!!