I didn't see this get reported so I'll do it.
This morning about 8:30 AM at Green Lake I saw a
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. It was on the ground next
to the jogging trail, under the birch trees, south
of the bench where the old fishermen and the mutant
ducks congregate, on the east shore, just south of the
entrance path from Green Lake Way, which is south of
the Community Center.

It created quite a buzz and lots of people stopped to
ask me what it was and to tell me that they had seen
it on either Saturday or Friday of last week in the
same spot. One pair of older ladies stopped me from
watching a RBNU on the far side of the lake to tell
me about it, even.

It stayed on the ground, with a couple of Brewer's
BB pals, until a dog on a leash came by, and then
it flew up into a tree. When the second dog on a
leash came by, it flew 100-150' north to the tree
above the old fishermen's bench.

I had forgotten the strange call it has. It always
sounds to me like the distant sound of a circular saw
sawing cross-grain through some relative hard wood.

I wonder if this is the same guy that was reported at
the Montlake Fill?

BTW I asked one of the park people and they said that
the nest boxes with the narrow slits on the snags north
of Bird Island were for swallows. Does anyone know if
they are targeted towards a particular species of swallow?

Bob Mauritsen
Seattle