hello tweets.

while birding the montlake fill this evening, the most remarkable
bird that i saw was a single solitary sandpiper. this bird was
located on the pond just north of trail leading towards the east
point pond. this pond, which does not appear on the map seen at
this URL; http://home.sol.no/~tibjonn/montlake.gif, is on the
opposite side of the trail from the "east point pond." the solitary
sandpiper was feeding near three greater yellowlegs, and two
killdeer (giving me a great color and size comparison in the
evening light), along with a mallard family, composed of eight
ducklings, and several pair of (american) green-winged teal. i
was able to observe this bird for more than an hour, and it was
still there when i left at sundown. this bird doesn't appear to
want to leave anytime soon, despite being chased numerous times
by the resident gang of hoodlums, er, crows. the bird has one
misplaced flight feather on it's right shoulder, so perhaps that
is the reason it seems unwilling to move on?

in other news, there are at least six canada goose families at
the fill today, and i am sure there will be more tomorrow morning.
the killer geese (and i do mean this literally: there is a dead
canada goose on their territory!) are still incubating, so watch
out when walking behind the central pond (or wear a motorcycle helmet
and a kevlar suit).

there was a report of a yellow-headed blackbird in the brush
next to ravenna creek, but i didn't see it tonight. the central pond
(what is called the "main pond" in the map) was once again
filled with many ducks of several different species.

overall, tonight was a good night to go birding. i saw 49 species,
including the unusual solitary sandpiper and the elegant greater
yellowlegs. i also ran into lots of birders and several "closet
tweeters" who said to me "OH! i know who YOU are!" upon meeting
me. tonight's bird list follows, for those who might be interested;

pied-billed grebe
double-crested cormorant
great blue heron
greater white-fronted goose, 3
canada goose
mallard
gadwall
american green-winged teal
american wigeon
northern shoveler
ruddy duck
ring-necked duck
greater scaup
lesser scaup
bufflehead
american coot
killdeer
greater yellowlegs, 3
solitary sandpiper, 1
western gull
glaucous-winged gull
"olympic gull" (glaucous-winged x western hybrid), 1
red-tailed hawk, 1 immature
california quail
ring-necked pheasant
rock dove
northern flicker
downy woodpecker
hairy woodpecker
tree swallow
violet-green swallow
barn swallow, 4 today, but i have seen as many as 6 in previous days
american crow
black-capped chickadee
bewick's wren
marsh wren
american robin
european starling
hutton's vireo
yellow-rumped (audubon's) warbler
yellow-rumped (myrtle) warbler
savannah sparrow
song sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
red-winged blackbird
brown-headed cowbird
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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