Hi Tweets,

I birded the Kent Ponds on Sunday from outside the fence,
since the ponds arent' open Sundays. Just South of the animal
shelter (the old way into the ponds) is a berm. There's just
enough room at the two service entrances there to pull in a car
without blocking the sidewalk. I lkie to scope the East end of
the ponds from there; it's definitely better viewing in the AM
hours as the glare offf the water in the afternoon is terrible.
>From there I drive around the South end of the complex and park
near the Advo warehouse and walk over to the bike/hike trail that
goes along the South end of the ponds. From here you can scope
the Western ponds and pick up most of the birds you can't see
from the first spot. Here's a list of what I saw:

Pied-billed grebe - 10
Horned Grebe - 1
Western Grebe - 1
Double-crested Cormorant - 6
Canada Goose - 600 to 700 including 250 "Cackling" Canadas
Green-winged Teal - 40
Mallard - 0??? A flock of approx. 250 was there on Friday.
N Pintail - 20
N Shoveler - 30
Gadwall - 30
American Wigeon - 200
Ring-necked Duck - 20
Lesser Scaup - 1 male
Bufflehead - 45
Hooded Merganser - 15 (many males displaying)
Common Merganser - 20 (all in female plumage)
Ruddy Duck - 20
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
American Coot - 250-300
Killdeer - 16
Greater Yellowlegs - 3 (2 yellowlegs sp.)
Dunlin - 9
Dowitcher sp. - 12
Mew Gull - 39
California Gull - 1
Glaucous-winged Gull - 6
Belted Kingfisher - 2 females jousting over territory.
American Crow -
5
American Pipit - 25
Starling - 200+
Savannah Sparrow - 2
Song Sparrow - 1
House Finch - 1
Am. Goldfinch - 2

I didn't bird the fields to the West of the pond area
since I couldn't get inside, but even from the outside of the
fence you can find Kestrels, Meadowlarks and a few other species.

Jim Flynn
Renton, WA
bf519 at scn.org