Greetings tweeters,

Did my Wednesday morning 3 mile/5 km bird census around Green Lake, Seattle
WA, this morning. A comfortable 60F/16C under sunny skies, light N wind.

Winter birds are arriving, some migrants passing through these past few
weeks. Here are the numbers (where applicable before comma males, after
comma females, asterisk denotes remark at bottom).

Pied-billed Grebe 26*
Double-crested Cormorant 6
Great Blue Heron 3
Canada Goose 128
Domesticated Goose 9
Mallard 60,19?*
Gadwall 99,52
American Wigeon 2,1
Lesser Scaup 0,2
Common Merganser 0,1
Ruddy Duck 6,0
Domesticated Duck 9
Cooper's Hawk 0,1 imm*
American Coot 241
Killdeer 2
Spotted Sandpiper 1 imm
Ring-billed Gull 12
California Gull 1
Glaucous-winged hybrid gulls 4
Glaucous-winged Gull 14
Common Tern 1
Rock Dove 24
Belted Kingfisher 1,0
Downy Woodpecker 4
Northern Flicker 3*
Steller's Jay 1
American/Northwestern Crow 27
Black-capped Chickadee 30
Bushtit 40
Red-breasted Nuthatch 3
European Starling 100*
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 16
Song Sparrow 4
Red-winged Blackbird 19
Brewer's Blackbird 21
Bullock's Oriole 1*
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 20
House Sparrow 24


Notes:

Pied-billed Grebe: only three food-begging (but nearly independent) young
remain in two broods. Puzzling is the maintenance work kept up at the last
active nest (which failed around hatching a month ago). Even more puzzling
is that the birds hanging around in that territory are not the ones who
established that territory. The original male had a deformed lower left
mandible, I can recognize him anywhere on the lake. I believe he has left
this past week. His partner had an exceptionally long bill with a heavily
hooked upper mandible, rare in females (on Green Lake at any rate). The two
birds hanging out and ostensibly doing the nest maintenance have different
bills. This particular male is in wing-molt right now. The original male
(and female both) went through their wing molt in July while incubating
their eggs.
Despite the occasional "luck" in recognizing individuals I would love to get
bands on these birds, including special permit bands which can be read using
a scope. Perhaps next year. There's so much more to be learnt about these
critters...

Mallard: I believe I missed a good number of the birds on the lake. Perhaps
a flock grazing on the fields behind the Community Center? An area I usually
do not include. But last week there were 89 males and 30 females, the
difference with this week is unusual in that their numbers should increase
this time of year, not decrease.

Cooper's Hawk: when I started the count I noticed the crows around the
Community Center were upset. "Watch-out-there's-a-raptor-around kinda
upset." Really, it's their calls and nervous short flights while
cawing...Anyway, it took about 45 seconds before they flushed the hawk from
one tree to another. In flight the hawk was distinctly bigger than the
crows. Got a good look at the immature female perched in the tree before she
was flushed again by the crows, 2 minutes later.

Northern Flicker: one male integrade (red-shafted x yellow-shafted). All
yellow under wing and tail, mostly red mustache, gray crown and nape, brown
cheeks, but no red crescent on the back of the head.

European Starling: 1/3 the number from last week.

Bullock's Oriole: the surprise of the morning. A single female in the oak
trees on the knoll west of the Bathhouse Theater, quietly foraging among the
warblers she dwarfed. Watched her for about 3 minutes. Saw the pale yellow
breast and whitish belly well, dark line through eyes present. Checked "A
guide to bird finding" (Wahl and Paulson, 1991) and "Birding in Seattle and
King County" (Hunn, 1982), both publications indicate that this species
usually is not seen after late July (Hunn) or August (Wahl and Paulson).

Happy Birding.

Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com