Subject: May 28 Green Lake, Seattle, count (long)
Date: May 28 18:51:15 1997
From: "Martin Muller" - MartinMuller at msn.com


Greetings fellow bird lovers.
Here is the last weekly count for the month of May on Green Lake, Seattle.
For people unfamiliar with the lake; Green Lake is an old (12,000 years plus),
shallow (mean depth 13 feet), naturally eutrophic lake, measuring some 256
acres of water surface surrounded by 150 acres of park land, in the north end
of Seattle. Surrounded by dense urban area, it is the most heavily used park
in the state of Washington. Named for the color of its water in late summer,
due to algae blooms that have taken place in the lake for at least 7000 years
(as determined by mud core sampling back in the 1950s).
Weather conditions this morning were mild. Around 60 F/10 C, no appreciable
wind. I circled the lake between 7:30 and 9 AM.
Yellow iris blooming, black cottonwoods shedding cotton, Eurasian milfoil
nearing the surface and floating mats in some bays. I predict a horrendous
year for milfoil (i. e. very dense growth all the way to the surface) , since
the lake has been crystal clear all summer and temperatures have been mild.
Lots of water has entered the lake through rainfall and from the reservoirs,
so lots of algae have been flushed out, reducing competition for light. Mind
you, this is just my personal theory. Water quality has been studied
extensively in Green Lake and so far nobody has been able to accurately
predict what the "green" in the lake will be doing a few months ahead (let
alone long-term). But I thought I'd give it a shot, just for the heck of it.
The water lilies (covering about 4% of the lake's surface) are becoming quite
dense. They are strong enough for foraging red-winged blackbirds as well as
spotted sandpipers to walk over the top.
The path renovation is as good as finished. Today city officials were doing
their final punch list. The path around the lake was open these past three
weekends, the construction fence was taken down last Friday. This coming
Saturday (May 31, from 11 AM till 3 PM) the official opening of the new path
will take place with lots of music, booths by vendors and neighborhood groups.
The Green Lake Park Alliance (volunteers for Green Lake) will offer free bird
walks at 8 AM, 12 noon and 3 PM, open to the first 15 registrants. Register in
advance at the Green Lake Park Alliance booth on the south side of the
Community Center/Evans Pool building. In addition three tree identification
walks will take place as well. Starting times noon, 1 PM and 2 PM. Same number
of participants and registration requirements
(hope tweeters will forgive the "plug").

Legend:
First number indicates males, second females, third young. In parenthesis the
brood sizes are given. Where there are only two numbers it's either
male/female or adult/young (the latter indicated).
Asterisk indicated a note at the end of the list.

pied-billed grebe* 6
double-crested cormorant 1
great blue heron 1
Canada goose* 102ad,28gosling (4,7,7,10)
domesticated goose* 8ad,3gosl
mallard 36,11,20 (1,1,3,4,5,6)
gadwall 6,1
American wigeon* 1,0
domesticated duck 6ad,3ducklings
killdeer 1
spotted sandpiper* 2
California gull* 1
pink-legged hybrid gull 7
glaucous-winged gull 23
rock dove 26
downy woodpecker* 1,1,2
western wood-pewee 2
tree swallow 4
violet-green swallow 45
northern rough-winged swallow 2
barn swallow 50
American crow 13
black-capped chickadee 22
bushtit 8
red-breasted nuthatch 1
American robin 1
European starling 85
yellow warbler 1
yellow-rumped warbler 24
Wilson's warbler 1
western tanager 0,1
song sparrow 2
red-winged blackbird* 47
Brewer's blackbird 7
house finch 4
house sparrow 66

Notes:

Pied-billed Grebe; one nest in the largest patch of water lilies contains five
eggs. The fifth egg was laid between 8 PM yesterday and 8:15 AM today. This
past weekend the Lake Samamish ski club had one of their two yearly ski events
on Green Lake (grown historically, but I believe it's time to end the
practice). The wakes of the boats almost destroyed the nest with two eggs and
a third egg may have been lost during the two-day event. The gap between eggs
was close to double normal time. Skipping of a day between eggs does occur in
Pied-bills, but usually towards the end of the clutch. However since I wasn't
there the whole time I can not be sure about this. Loss of nests with eggs due
to this same activity has been documented in the past. Organizers were very
responsive to my concerns over damage to the nest and moved the course 100
yards away, but this did not avoid damaging the nest completely. I'm not done
with this one yet...
A second nest is under construction near the crosswalk on Aurora Avenue, among
the water lilies. Clearly visible to all. Worth a minute or two of your time.

Canada goose; After a wet spring with very few rental boats on the lake,
Canada and domesticated goose productivity on the little island in the lake
(Waldo J. Dahl water fowl refuge; an official state refuge) was high again
this year. There is a direct correlation with the weather and goose
productivity on the lake. Sunny weekend weather = lots of rented boats = low
productivity. Wet weekend weather = few rented boats = high productivity. One
pair of Canada geese has usurped three domesticated goslings and this provides
a "natural" marker for the group. Two adults, 7 Canada goslings, three
domesticated goslings. As in years past the domesticated geese, descendants of
domesticated Greylag geese resident on the lake, will grow up behaving like
and assimilating into the social fabric of this Canada goose unit. They will
provide a marker by which the movements of this group throughout Seattle can
be monitored for months if not years to come.
Canada goose flight feather molt has started and the number of birds increased
sharply over the past week (up from last week's 43 total), reflecting Green
Lake's status as a destination park for geese and people alike.

American wigeon; one single male remains. Doesn't show obvious signs of injury
which might explain why it hasn't left the lake yet like all other wigeons.
The pair it was hanging out with finally left this past week.

Spotted sandpiper; one on a log along the island's shore, the other on the
diving platforms near the Bathhouse Theater.

California gull; unusual for this time of year on this lake.

Downy woodpecker; pair at the north end has two young that left the nest in
one of the snags on shore between last Saturday and today. I can't stress the
importance of snags as habitat enough to people who participate in the bird
walks around the lake. Seeing the woodpeckers and tree swallows and chickadees
(and house sparrows and starlings) use the snags does tend to drive the point
home. It's nice the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation is more and
more willing to leave snags standing, even fencing them off to reduce the
chance of injury from falling limbs, instead of immediately removing the
trees. But there's room for improvement still.

Red-winged blackbird; many young out of nests, including just north of the
Aqua Theater along the southeastern shore. As far as I know the first time
this species successfully nested on this side of the lake. They're definitely
expanding in the park over the years. On the west side, males are using some
of the small newly planted trees as singing posts. I've expressed concern over
the density of the new trees in this area and how, in the long run, it will
change the character of this area and make it unsuitable as nesting habitat
for red-winged blackbirds, due to shading and proximity of this many trees in
the area. Next winter half of the trees will be moved out of this area to
another site around the lake; moving them now would guarantee failure of the
trees.

That's the news from Green Lake for this month. June, July and August promise
to be extremely busy for me, so I probably won't be able to report on Green
Lake counts even though I'll try to get in as many counts as possible.

Best regards,
Martin Muller, Seattle
martinmuller at msn.com