Howdy,
In prep for the Jan 02 CBC for this area, I spent all of my available bird
time today surveying at Des Moines with not enough daylight to check
Seahurst Park or shoreline. I did spot a PILEATED WOODPECKER flying along
forest edge of Seahurst Park early this morning.

Midday to near sunset weather at Marina mostly miserable. The rain did
abate later in the afternoon. Wind blowing across water felt very icy out
on the fishing pier, but inland temps were not too bad. I also walked up
the old Des Moines-Seattle "highway" path on the north edge of the beach
park and scouted the neighborhood on the bluff plus woods and Sound from
the bluff trail leading down to the beach houses.

Overall bird numbers today were modest compared to most winters and even
earlier in the past few weeks. There were no more than 125 birds out on
the water within view from the pier with a fair mix of about 25 WESTERN,
HORNED, AND RED-NECKED Grebes, several dozen SURF and WHITE-WINGED
Scoters, a single COMMON Loon very close to the beach park, the usual
assortment of COOTS and semi-feral MALLARDS, 1 or 2 PIGEON Guillemots, a
couple of BUFFLEHEADS, a single male BELTED Kingfisher flying back and
forth, one morose GREAT BLUE Heron (they always seem to look morose in
this kind of damp, windy weather), a couple of BARROW'S Goldeneyes and 5-7
COMMON Goldeneyes. Flying about and feeding on the water were 4-6
DOUBLE-CRESTED Cormorants, mostly sub-adults. In addition to the
expected convention of GLAUCOUS-WINGED & hybrid Gulls was a single MEW
Gull on the water and a Harbor Seal surfaced to peruse the lone
fisherman on the pier (weather was really that miserable!)

Within the Marina jetty in the sheltered water amongst the moored boats
were about 35 more Barrow's Goldeneyes, 7 more Horned Grebes, and 1
PIED-BILLED Grebe.

In the trees, lawns, and shrubby areas of the surround were a motley of
many, many foraging ROBINS, a few BLACK-CAPPED Chickadees, 1-2 RUBY-
CROWNED Kinglets, a male DOWNY Woodpecker, a COMMON Flicker, one
male SPOTTED Towhee. Where were the Juncoes or Siskins or finches....
.........none?

Peering over the jetty at the southwest edge of Anthony's HomePort, I
could see about 100 AMERICAN Wigeon (way down from the 1000+ seen in the
past few weeks) plus a couple of dozen more Surf with a few White-Winged
Scoters. A flight of RED-BREASTED Mergansers were headed for the waters
near the shoreline of Saltwater Park to the south.

BIRD OF THE DAY: North of the fishing pier in the water near the row of
beach houses was an easy-to-ID, adult, basic-plumed RED-THROATED Loon
with the skinny, perked up bill, the sharply defined dark&light head/
neck, overall less bulky shape---compared to the Common Loon, and the
white-spotted back. This species is not seen in our area very often, and
this bird may qualify as a "during-the-count-period" for the CBC records.
Hopefully, it'll hang around for the next couple of weeks to count it on
Jan 02 CBC for the Kent/Des Moines area. Thais Bock, can you check your
records for the occasion of the Red-throated Loon in this area of the
Sound over the past few decades?

Not a bad winter for us so far, warmer than usual, and very wet, as usual,
but no snow/ice or giant tree-toppling wind storms in the lowlands......
......yet.

Cheers and will try to get Seahurst Park surveyed again next weekend,
Maureen
******************************
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu U of WA & Burien-Seahurst Park, WA

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