I took a quick walk though Golden Gardens Park in the Ballard area of
Seattle this morning and near the boat ramp I saw ~5 Marbled Murrelets
just inside the breakwater. Kevin Li mentioned seeing some closer to the
ship canal a few days ago, but these are the first I've seen. In the
same area were a Pigeon Guillemot, 10 or so Western Grebes, 3 alternate
plumage Horned Grebes and an alternate plumage Eared Grebe. Three female
Red-breasted Mergansers were being harrassed by a 3rd year(?) Western
Gull until they all left the area. All of this was in the area between
the end of the Marina and the beach. The Brant numbers were down a bit
this morning, there were maybe 30. The ponds were very quiet, a couple
dozen sleeping mallards, a pair of American Wigeons and a lone Gadwall.
The highlight at the ponds were two Savannah Sparrows hopping along the
shore. They posed very nicely for about 30 seconds not more than 20 feet
away fefore flying off toward the RR tracks. There was also a banded
Crow near the boat ramp, I only caught a quick glimpse. From the rear it
had white or silver on the left and red on the right leg. It was a big
crow and quite brown on top.

If the Marbeled Murrelets stay where they are, the best place to see
them is at the end of the public fishing pier next to the boat ramp. And
by the way, all the birds mentioned would have been visible by a
wheelchair-bound birder.

Cliff Drake
(Ballard) Seattle
cdrake at zipcon.net