Subject: montlake fill is hopping with birds today! (friday)
Date: Apr 17 13:12:13 1999
From: joanne - jobu at accessone.com


pardon my inexperience, but where is the montlake fill?

-----Original Message-----
From: Deborah Wisti-Peterson [SMTP:nyneve at u.washington.edu]
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 1999 12:09 AM
To: nyneve at u.washington.edu; tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: montlake fill is hopping with birds today! (friday)



hello tweetsters.

as you all know, today was the eighth sunny day of 1999, and
so i suppose that we all are feeling a little crazy because
of that. i decided that i would die if i could not get outside
to enjoy this fantabulous day, and i finally made it, at 530pm
tonight, i was breathing the sweet delicious springtime air.
of course, i immediately walked to the montlake fill so i could
spend some time "really birding" instead of rushing and missing
all the really fun species. today, i stayed until dusk.

this evening's birds were every bit as glorious as the weather.
the central pond was covered with hundreds of ducks of eleven
different species. there are at least three male ruddy ducks
in full breeding plumage, several pair of the lovely
ring-necked ducks, many scaup (both greater and lesser,
providing one with the opportunity to practice their scaup ID
skills), and the highlight of the pond ducks was, in my opinion,
the female canvasback. i am almost certain that this is the
same canvasback hen that i have seen on the lake itself, and i
think that the motorboats and ski-doos convinced her to join
her relatives on the central pond for some peace and quiet.
despite the great number of ducks that i did see tonight, i have
not been able to find the cinnamon teal!

the killdeer were extremely noisy tonight. they were fighting
with their neighbors over territorial boundaries, it appeared.
they also were being hassled by the bazillions of crows, who
chased them 'round and 'round the fill itself. a special highlight
of this evening's birding were the four beautiful greater
yellowlegs, all of whom were in breeding plumage, one with
very bright orange legs, too. i also saw two western sandpipers
arrive as the shadows started to gather in the evening sky and
i rediscovered the pair of common snipe.

i also saw the barn swallow again, i noticed a caspian tern fly over
and i counted 19 american pipits as they fed at the flooded area
near the dime lot. the mother mallard and her two ducklings swam
nearby, and the father showed up and helped to shepherd the
dwindling family to the relative safety and cover of the dime lot
pond. there now are three canada geese families: today, i discovered
a five-gosling family and i relocated the eight gosling family
(everyone is still alive). the seven-gosling family seems to have
permanently moved to the boathouse so they are never at the fill.

besides having a fantastic time, i saw 55 species of birds at the
montlake fill tonight. my bird list follows, for those who might
be interested;

pied-billed grebe, many
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
mute swan, 1
greater white-fronted geese, 3
canada geese, many
mallard
gadwall
american green-winged teal, dozens
american wigeon, many dozens
northern shoveler, dozens
ruddy duck, one dozen or so
canvasback, one hen on central pond
ring-necked duck, dozens
greater scaup, dozens
lesser scaup, dozens
common goldeneye, one pair
barrow's goldeneye, on lake
bufflehead, bazillions everywhere
american coot, bazillions everywhere
killdeer, many dozens (noisy, too!)
greater yellowlegs, 4
common snipe, 2
western sandpiper, 2
western gull
glaucous-winged gull
caspian tern, 1
california quail
ring-necked pheasant
rock dove
northern (red-shafted) flicker
downy woodpecker
tree swallow
violet-green swallow, many
barn swallow
american crow, bazillions
black-capped chickadee, many
bushtit
bewick's wren
marsh wren
american robin, many
american pipit, 19+
european starling
hutton's vireo
yellow-rumped (audubon's) warbler
savannah sparrow, many
song sparrow, many
white-crowned sparrow
golden-crowned sparrow
fox sparrow
red-winged blackbird
brewer's blackbird
brown-headed cowbird (heard only)
house (english) sparrow
american goldfinch
house finch

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
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