On Saturday morning 11/27 keen-eyed Kris Baker spotted a merlin heading west
near Green Lake (Aurora Ave at 77th), as we were driving east on 80th. Maybe
this was the same one that Martin Muller just reported.
Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, during the blazingly hot sunny afternoon I
noticed a ruckus among the crows at Martin Luther King Park in Seattle's
Central district. A red tail was on the ground, apparently trying to feed,
and the crows were mobbing it. It was nice to see a raptor making use of
that urban park.
Sunday morning Kris and I were birding from the 16th floor of a condo
overlooking Vancouver's Stanley Park; looking down on the lake we saw a
surprisingly large flock of many hundreds of Barrow's goldeneyes, easily
outnumbering the scaups, mallards, shovelers, and mergansers. It was an
interesting perspective, looking down on birds from that height.

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 West Ewing St
Seattle, WA 9810

> ----------
> From: Martin J. Muller[SMTP:MartinMuller at email.msn.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 25, 1999 10:32 PM
> To: Tweeters
> Subject: 24 November 1999 Green Lake, Seattle, count (long)
>
> Greetings tweetsters,
>
> Sorry for the delay, but here's yesterdays count of the birds on/around
> Green Lake, here in the north end of Seattle.
> Conditions: rain and 6C/45F.
>
> Interesting to see that plant eaters like coots, wigeons, and geese are
> all
> on shore. Apparently not much in the lake for them. In other years they
> would still be feasting on the abundant milfoil. My personal
> interpretation
> is that the heavy cyanobacteria ("blue-green algea") bloom late summer
> outcompeted the milfoil for sunlight (during the day) and oxygen (during
> the
> night), causing the milfoil to die back earlier than usual, forcing the
> birds out on the grass. Mind you I can't back this up with hard data on
> milfoil density in the lake (and of course nobody is monitoring this out
> there...). Normally this time of year the coots would still be out on the
> lake in force, diving for and coming up with lots of milfoil and the
> gadwalls and wigeons hanging around them, stealing (excuse me
> "kleptoparasitising") some of the milfoil. Most coots and gadwalls have
> left. The wigeons are out on the grass. Curious to see if more diving
> birds
> (scaup, ruddy ducks, etc.) will show up this winter, now that there
> appears
> to be less milfoil to hinder their under water activity. Wait & see.
>
> As usual, where applicable the number before the comma indicates male,
> after
> female. An asterisk indicates a note at the end.
>
> GREBES, PODICIPEDIDAE
> pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) 11
> horned grebe (Podiceps auritus) 2
> western grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) 1,1
> CORMORANTS, PHALACROCORACIDAE
> double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) 6
> HERONS, ARDEIDA
> great blue heron (Ardea herodias) 1
> WATERFOWL, ANATIDAE
> Canada goose (Branta canadensis) 221
> domesticated goose 8
> gadwall (Anas strepera) 9,8
> Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope) 1,0*
> American wigeon (Anas americana) 82,49
> mallard (Anas platyrhinchos) 52,30
> northern shoveler (Anas clypeata) 1,2
> ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris) 2,1
> lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) 2,0
> bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) 11,7*
> common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) 1,0
> common merganser (Mergus merganser) 4,6
> ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) 4,3
> OSPREY, EAGLES, HAWKS, ACCIPITIDAE
> bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) 1,1 adults*
> FALCONS, FALCONIDAE
> merlin (Falco columbarius) 1*
> RALLIDAE, RAILS
> American coot (Fulica americana) 63
> GULLS & TERNS, LARIDAE
> mew gull (Larus canus) 210
> ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis) 32
> California gull (Larus clifornicus) 4
> herring gull (Larus argentatus) 1
> Thayer's gull (Larus thayeri) 1
> glaucous-winged hybrids 12
> glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens) 61
> PIGEONS & DOVES, COLUMBIDAE
> rock dove (Columba livia) 18
> KINGFISHERS, ALCEDINIDAE
> belted kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) 1,0
> WOODPECKERS, PICIDAE
> downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) 1,1
> northern flicker (Colaptus aratus) 1,0
> CORVIDS, CORVIDAE
> American crow (Corvus brachyrhychos) 48
> CHICKADEES, PARIDAE
> black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 20
> chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens) 2
> BUSHTITS, AEGITHALIDAE
> bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) 50
> NUTHATCHES, SITTIDAE
> red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) 1
> CREEPERS, CERTHIIDAE
> brown creeper (Certhia americana) 1
> WRENS, TROGLODYTIDAE
> Bewick's wren (Thryomanes bewickii) 1
> winter wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) 1
> KINGLETS, REGULIDAE
> golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa) 30
> ruby-crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula) 2
> THRUSHES, TURDIDAE
> American robin (Turdus migratorius) 21
> STARLINGS, STURNIDAE
> European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 50
> WOOD WARBLERS, PARULIDAE
> yellow-rumped warbler (Dendroica coronata) 1
> SPARROWS, EMBERIZIDAE
> song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 4
> dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis) 7
> BLACKBIRDS & ORIOLES, ICTERIDAE
> red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 18
> Brewer's blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) 11
> FINCHES, FRINGILLIDAE
> house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) 5
> American goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) 40
> OLD WORLD SPARROWS, PASSERIDAE
> house sparrow (Passer domesticus) 18
>
> Wigeon: there is one male Eurasian wigeon. Additionally there is one
> Eurasian x American wigeon hybrid male. He shows the cream forehead and
> grean eyestripe of the American, but the nape is chestnut-red and the
> flanks
> are gray as in Eurasian.
>
> Bufflehead: while there were only 18 buffleheads on the lake on Wednesday,
> Thursday morning there were close to 100 of them on the lake. Still some
> movement going on.
>
> Bald eagle: looks like the pair is present. Last Saturday during one of
> the
> Green Lake Park Alliance bird walks both were present. One of them brought
> a
> nice long stick to the nest. At least for now they appear to be thinking
> of
> using last year's spot.
>
> Merlin: during the count the bird was perched in a tree along Aurora
> Avenue.
> During Saturday's walk Linda Birman spotted a merlin streaking toward us.
> It
> flew directly overhead (15 m/45 ft) and disappeared between the trees of
> the
> Pitch-n-putt golf course. Nice to see this winter visitor present.
>
> Cheers,
> Martin Muller, Seattle
> MartinMuller at email.msn.com
>
>
>
>