We went to NOAA in the University area of Seattle because there had been a
report of a Short-eared Owl there a few weeks ago. We didn't see it, of
course, but we did see a few interesting birds.

There might have been a shrike. I'm going totally by silhouette because
looking at it would have meant stopping the car in the middle of the
road. It was about halfway between the main entrance and the sound garden.

We saw a lot of Greater Scaup, Common Mergansers and Canada Geese. A few
Bufflehead, Horned Grebe and Western Grebe. A Great Blue Heron seemed
undisturbed by the great nuymber of people there and a male Belted
Kingfisher was flying about as well.

We got a good look at a Savannah Sparrow (near the NOAA Cafe) and on the
way back, not too far from the sound garden, Mercy and Margie saw a loon
(I got just a fleeting look, enough to tell loon, but nothing more, not
even to narrow it down). They started descibing a Red-throated Loon.
They had the "snootiness" (their word) of the upturned bill and the way
the shading on the neck isn't sharply defined like on the Common Loons
we'd seen last week. They're pretty observant, so I suspect they had a
Red-throated Loon.

Also near the sound garden, we all got a good look at a Red-necked
Grebe. It was fairly near the shore, although it went further away as we
watched it.

Happy bird-day,
Ken

Ken Gale
New York City
nuffsaid at escape.com