Hi, Tweets --

Today I spent the morning in Renton at the King Conservation District
Wetland Plant Nursery doing some salmon habitat-related volunteer work.
The plant nursery is just off of Grady Way and very close to I-405, so it's
a noisy, urban-y area. There are many thistle plants within the nursery
area, what looked like blackberry bushes, and the nursery itself had lots
of things like native grasses, rushes, etc. There were goldfinches galore
there! I'd never seen so many g'finches in one place at one time, and saw
many more males than females (although my binocs weren't with me and it
wasn't possible/politic to just stand and watch the birds, if you know what
I mean!) flitting about and chortling. Quite a few house finches as well,
some bathing in little pools of standing water, and the KCD guy told me
there was a kildeer nest nearby. But there's nothing like that beautiful
burst of yellow-gold atop one of our evergreens, and it was very cool to
see several trees ornamented simultaneously by the goldfinches.

Cheers,

Mary Klein
Seattle
mailto:bassclef at aa.net