Fellow birders,

Did my weekly Green Lake, Seattle, count this morning.
Overcast, some light rain. Light S wind. 50F/10C
Legend: before the comma males, after females.

Pied-billed Grebe 23
Horned Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 8
Great Blue Heron 3
Greater White-fronted Goose 1
Canada Goose 111
Domesticated Goose 11
Mallard 75,55
Northern Shoveler 7,9
Gadwall 75,64
Eurasian Wigeon 2,0
American Wigeon 165,110
Lesser Scaup 2,0
Bufflehead 8,11
Common Merganser 37,33
Ruddy Duck 10,17
Domesticated Duck 9
Bald Eagle 1,1 ad, 0,1 imm
American Coot 584
Common Snipe 1
Mew Gull 258
Ring-billed Gull 23
Glaucous-winged hybrid gulls 7
Glaucous-winged Gull 64
Rock Dove 35
Red-breasted Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American/Northwestern Crow 69
Black-capped Chickadee 14
Bushtit 48
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 36
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
American Robin 4
European Starling 50
Song Sparrow 3
Red-winged Blackbird 46
Brewer's Blackbird 14
American Goldfinch 50
House Sparrow 38

Notes:

Almost all the PIED-BILLED GREBES are now sporting black bands on their
bills, black throat areas developing. The two that I believe are young from
last year (small white spots on side of neck, remnants juvenal plumage)
still have the reddish-brown bills without black marks. This is iffy, since
the birds aren't individually marked.

One HORNED GREBE near the Bathhouse Theater took off and flew well over a
mile, in a long curved path to the Aqua Theater. Never higher than 50 cm off
the water (tip of wings at lowest point). Strong flight (approximately 3
beats per second), much of the way atypical for a grebe, with head held
above the body.

COMMON MERGANSERS, GREAT BLUE HERONS and DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS still
feasting on small fish (look mostly like carp to me) in the reeds along the
NW corner. Good for close-up viewing. A little sunshine later in the morning
usually turns the male mergansers' thoughts to courtship. Good photo-op!
Also, the immature GBH will let you stop within ten feet
(don't bother trying this with the white-crowned adults, they'll fly).

Three BALD EAGLES on the lake. An adult pair. Initially at the island, then
one after the other flew to Lower Woodland Park. Female swept down and
picked up a dead coot along shore near the Aqua Theater, flew to the island,
the male in pursuit, vocalizing, she proceeded to pluck and eat while he sat
nearby looking on. An(this?) pair has been at the lake regularly the past
few weeks. Don't know which territory around town these "belong" to (if
they're not out-of-towners"). Meantime what looked like a first-year (huge,
therefor assumed) female sat in the black cottonwoods along the path on the
NE side of the lake.

AMERICAN COOT numbers are high. Regularly find one or more dead ones among
milfoil washed up on shore. Not surprised the eagles are hanging around.

COMMON SNIPE W of Bathhouse Theater along shore in one of the small bays.
Scared me almost as much as I must have scared it, bursting up, up an
away...

RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER in a large evergreen N of the Bathhouse Theater.
Usually between here and W to the tennis courts near the bay near the
island.

BROWN CREEPER in large flock of GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, the RUBY-CROWNED
KINGLETS and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES in the black walnuts N of the Aqua
Theater.

Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com