Friends,

What a glorious evening, and the Marina is now "ours" again; the local
residents can stroll about, gawk at the sunset and fish/crab in relative
peace at the fishing pier. Waterland Festival has ended; hope they made
tons of money!

I encountered my birding buddies again, a retired couple who often survey
the area twice a day plus maintain feeders plus scan the coastline from
their blufftop yard. Some of you may know them, Elaine and Henry Maros.
Henry is a professional sculptor; he does birds and animals, but mentioned
that his far-and-away best sellers were his unclothed human female
statues. I would be happy to pass along his studio number if anyone is
interested in seeing his work. I think he may have pieces available
sometimes. Oops, I digress: The Maros' have been monitoring the Caspian
terns in our area, and between 60 and 100! have been seen off the Beach
Park on some days in the past three weeks.

This evening there were five Common terns, but no Caspians. The terns
seemed to like their fishing more than the Human anglers pitching lines
off the pier. Catch of the day was "ratfish," Hydrolagus colliei subsp?.
They look a bit like sharks (can be nearly a meter long) and have
beautiful brown and white markings and they were all getting thrown
back in disgust! While the fishermen were joshing each other about
catching such a worthless fish, I felt just the opposite. Learning about
the natural history of this interesting looking and clearly tough fish is
a gotta-know-more.

Outcome of this season's new Great Blue Heronry near downtown Des Moines
Marina District: Four nests were built and variously occupied by adults
at least until near the end of June. When I checked again the second week
of July after returning from Maine Warbler Workshop, the heron nests
appeared to have been abandoned. Up to six adults have been seen feeding
in the past few days near the Marina jetty and along the beach north of
the fishing pier. Another (solitary) GBH nest has been located also in
the south part of town a few blocks up Kent-Des Moines Road. There is NO
confirmation that any of these nests produced live fledglings or even eggs
this season. This year the Bald eagles won; it'll be interesting to see
how these two species balance out over the next few years.

Enjoying all this balmy weather and noting that July is nearly over.
Summer is passing fast.

Cheers to all,
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA