12 of us on a Mountaineers naturalist hike on the rail trail north of
Carnation identified 34 bird species today in a 4 hour, 9 mile (total of out
and back) walk. The trail is cindered and was quite dry even after the
considerable rain lately. Most of us had on boots, but walking shoes would
have been fine. The birds of the day for me were the woodpeckers - one each
of the Pileated, Hairy and Downy. The weather was warm and mostly sunny and
the birds seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were. Our species list in
random order:

Steller's Jay, Northwestern Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Bushtit, Marsh
Wren, Common Raven, American Robin, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, European Starling,
Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Dark-eyed Junco, Pileated
Woodpecker(male), Downy Woodpecker(male), Hairy Woodpecker(female), Northern
Flicker (male and female Red-shafted), Mew Gull, Red-breasted Merganser,
Double-crested Cormorant, Spotted Towhee, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Canada
Goose, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon,
Eurasian Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye, Red-tailed Hawk, Bald
Eagle, American Coot, Belted Kingfisher (male perched with small fish in
beak).

On the return walk a muskrat entertained us by putting his lunch up on a log
floating in a marsh pond (looked like some greens from the marsh bottom),
pulled himself up on the log, washed his face and proceeded to casually have
his meal while we all watched from about 20 feet away. I guess he realized
while we were close, we weren't about to get into that cold water with him!

Jon Williams
Bellevue, WA
jon at wport.com