Checked the new, near downtown, urban neighborhood GBHeronry I first
reported two weeks ago. There are still the three nests all occupied by
adults. I cannot yet determine egg or hatchling status. These urban
herons are clearly not as acclimated to human observation as the
recently reported in Tweeters GBHeronry at the Vancouver, BC, zoo. I
spend a few min watching them through binos and leave when they begin
starring back at me and appear 'alarmed.'

The weekend storm left the Beach Park flooded again with a fair amount of
new damage to trees in the small woodland east of the Senior Ctr. Noted
fewer territorial Song sparrows and not much else.

The Marina and beach were being visited by a pair of noisy Caspian terns;
it was a good opportunity to closely study all the major field marks
including the distinctive dark pattern under the wing tips. The beach
itself has an interesting collection of visiting juvenile-transitioning-
to-first-winter plumed CA, Ring-billed, a few Mew, plus Glaucous-winged
and maybe Western gulls. On this date, the most numerous gull was the CA.

The local family of Canada geese still has all five goslings living and
now about 1/3 to 1/2 adult size. The goslings with their huge, adult-
sized legs remind me of young puppies growing up to match their big feet.
The Canada goose family just seems to mix in and feed, roost, swim, and
generally hang out with the local summering gull population. I would have
thought that the plump Canada babies would wind up as dinner for our
Glaucous-winged gulls or our local Bald eagles. It's an interesting
behavioral ecology puzzle.

Finally, there appears to be approximately 16 Barn swallow nests under the
Marina wharfs. My estimate for last season was about 70 nests fledging
young. So, at least locally the returning Barn swallow population has
greatly declined this year. I cannot determine nesting in either our
Pied-billed grebe or Belted kingfisher marina residents. Since even the
House sparrow population nesting in the roofs over the boat slips seems
down this year, I can only speculate that spring storms have, perhaps,
adversely affected normal nesting in many resident species also.

Last weekend, popped over to PotHoles area in central WA. Saw bunches of
Great egrets and several tern species including the lovely Black tern plus
a mating pair of Lark sparrows, tons (well pounds, maybe) of singing
Brewer's sparrows, and nesting Lewis' woodpeckers and both species of
Bluebirds. Wonderful birding there and fabulous wildflowers!

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