Subject: neat-o birds at the montlake fill today (WED AFTERNOON)
Date: Apr 28 20:43:23 1999
From: Deborah Wisti-Peterson - nyneve at u.washington.edu



hello tweeters.

while wandering around the montlake fill this afternoon, i
saw 9 (later, i counted 14) peeps, feeding in the marshy area
surrounding the eastern pond. as i was looking at them, bob
vandenbosch sat next to me and, after studying these birds for
awhile, we decided that this small flock was composed of about
half western sandpipers and half least sandpipers. later,
after bob had left, i returned to this pond for another look,
and decided that there were at least five western sandpipers
and the remainder were least sandpipers (remember, i had
re-counted this flock and found 14 birds this time).

after walking through the fill with bob, i returned to this
pond, secretly hoping that i might re-locate the solitary
sandpiper that i saw here last week, and that bob had seen
yesterday, but no such luck. i sat quietly in back of the
pond for awhile, looking at all the peeps again, when a pair
of cinnamon teal floated out of the dead grasses and into
clear view. i was amazed, wondering where they came from
and how they managed to stay hidden for so long. several
groups of birders walked by this pond on the gravel pathway,
but only one group seemed to see the teal.

the central pond was full of ducks, as usual, but most of
them were snoozing. i crept around the back of the central
pond, where the killer goose is located, and noticed that he
is now a proud papa. i counted eight goslings tucked under
mama goose. well, true to form, papa killer goose tried to
kill me, even though i was probably 50 feet away, so we
had to re-establish our no-hostilities treaty. after i was
sure it was safe, i then turned my attention to more
interesting things. i noticed two least sandpipers fly into
the central pond and land on the shore for a quick bath. as
i was watching them, i noticed two american pipits feeding
on the muddy ground. they were quite tame and approached
me closely. they even tolerated my partner's approach, and let
us get good long looks at them.

other interesting birds seen while at the fill include another
new arrival, two cliff swallows. i also saw a caspian tern
fly over, a noisy common snipe flying and running around, and
a calling virginia rail. a third-year bald eagle flew over
and then finally managed to land in the beaver trees for a
short rest. the goldfinches are present in tremendous numbers
now and are singing incessantly. as an added bonus, i do think
that i figured out the answer to a question asked last week
by a tweeter, whose name i forgot. this tweeter asked if
anyone knows what common bird makes a call that is similar
to the greater yellowlegs' call; a high-pitched, descending
"tew-tew-tew." is it possible that a female red-winged blackbird
might be making this sound?

regards,

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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