Fellow bird-enthusiasts,

After a week absence, I did my bird count of Green Lake (Seattle) again this
morning.
I walked the 3 miles (or just under 5 kilometers) around the lake between 7
and 8:30 AM. Some light drizzle accompanied me. The temperature was a
comfortable 54 degrees Fahrenheit (or for those of us who grew up "metric" the
much more easily understood 12 degrees Centigrade or Celsius). Winds from the
southwest.

The section of the path between the Community Center and Aqua Theater is
fenced-off for renovation. One can walk outside the fence and catch most water
birds easily. Smaller songbirds (like warblers) are more difficult to spot,
but during lulls in traffic one may be able to hear them. I'm sure I missed a
few Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Carp are still spawning, starting to concentrate on the areas with newly
emerging water lilies. Occasional big-ones jumping clear out of the water.
Turtles (Western Painted Turtles) have been sunning themselves on logs and
fallen trunks along the lake shore, the past few days.

Legend: numbers indicate male , female , offspring. Numbers in parenthesis
indicate brood-size(s). Asterisks indicate a footnote.

Here are the numbers :)

Pied-billed Grebe 2(3?),2*
Canada Goose 26
domesticated goose 8
Mallard 15,2,15(4,11)
Gadwall 5,3
American Wigeon 12,9
Bufflehead 10,15*
domesticated duck 5
Bald Eagle 1 ad*
Cooper's Hawk 1
American Coot 95
pink-footed gull hybrids 7
Glaucous-winged Gulls 20
Caspian Tern 2
Rock Dove 12
Downy Woodpecker 2,1
Northern Flicker 2,2
Tree Swallow 20
Violet-green Swallow 210
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 25
American/Northwestern Crow 16
Black-capped Chickadee 28
Bushtit 8
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
American Robin 2
European Starling 24
Yellow-rumped Warbler 44
Black-throated Gray Warbler 1*
Song Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 52
Brewer's Blackbird 6*
House Finch 6
American Goldfinch 18
House Sparrow 44

* Two Pied-billed Grebe males have staked out some territories and females are
visiting. One male has started a rudimentary "nest" and was very enthusiastic
when one female came by. He immediately swam up to her and gave the rapid
chittering Greeting Call, when she surfaced. She however kept right on
going...
*Bufflehead. Number of females is females and immature males combined.
*Bald Eagle. Possible female. Several shorter primaries in left wing.
Different from the adult male who has been on the lake a lot these past weeks.
*Black-throated Gray Warbler. First of the season. In the oak trees on the
knoll west of the Bathhouse Theater.
*Brewer's Blackbirds. An advantage of being forced to doing something out of
the ordinary (taking the outside path because of renovation of the inner path)
is that occasionally you stumble onto something good. The past two springs I
suspected Brewer's Blackbirds nested in the park. I never followed through.
Today I found two pairs carrying nest material into low evergreens (I'll have
to try and id these exotic trees). Now that I know where to look, I'll be
checking on them regularly for additional indicators of breeding behavior.

That's it for this week.
My thanks to tweeters who've e-mailed me privately to thank me for these
postings. Any kind of feed-back (but postive feed-back especially) is greatly
appreciated.
Good birding!
Martin Muller, Seattle
martinmuller at msn.com