On Saturday morning I saw and heard a scrub jay for several minutes outside
my front window in SE Ballard; it sat nicely in the open for my personal
viewing pleasure. I followed it around the neighborhood for a few minutes,
and heard it again yesterday. The calls were reminiscent of a towhee and a
magpie, and clearly were an unusual sound for my Ballard yard.

I've had some recent inquiries on the Ballard purple martins. Purple martins
were not present at the nestbox this morning, nor at mid afternoon when I
passed by in the King County research boat. If they're still to be seen,
dusk is often the best time to check on them, like around 7pm. The location
is at the public access beach at 6321 Seaview Ave NW, just south of
Shilshole marina, directly behind West Marine and the Ballard Elks Club. A
scope is helpful, for the boxes are on pilings in the intertidal.

A quick trip to Ilwaco and Cape Disappointment and Fort Stevens on Friday
and Saturday gave Kris Baker and I the chance to see thousands of sooty
shearwaters, hundreds of brown pelicans, and other assorted seabirds. 20
knot winds made it hard to see, and I was wishing I had brought my
windsurfer. Most of the birds were in enormous mobs by the north lighthouse
at Fort Canby, and on the Columbia at Fort Stevens near buoy 10. The 3 hour
drive was well worth it.

Kevin Li
King County Environmental Lab
322 West Ewing St.
Seattle, WA 98119

mailto: kevin.li at metrokc.gov

Visit our Lakes website:
http://splash.metrokc.gov/wlr/waterres/lakes/index.htm