Subject: Banded Crow, fleg Heron and fleg Kingfisher
Date: Jul 24 16:51:47 2000
From: Cliff Drake - ardea at uswest.net


I reported this to the U Dub site, but I thought I'd mention it here too.
There was a banded AMERICAN CROW in Commodore Park, Seattle today, about
10:30 AM. left leg, silver usfws below green, right leg - I'm a bit unsure
here on the number but not the color - gray above gray, or one double sized
band, It looked different in different views. It was raiding a trash can
with a group of its friends right next to the locks entrance, the can at the
bottom of the stairs. Speaking of garbage and stuff, the crows around here
have become adept at raiding the parks department garbage cans and spreading
garbage all over, it seems to me that a better design would keep out the
crows and keep our parks cleaner. The clean-up woman said they buy cans with
flaps, but they get so much use they break off in no time. (The locks has
new solid steel locking garbage cans, I tried to pick up a door once, it
must have weighed 80 pounds. I swear each can must weigh 300-400 pounds.
Talk about overkill)

Also at the locks/Commodore Park were a fledgling GREAT BLUE HERON and a
fledgling BELTED KINGFISHER being fed by an adult. I don't know how many
kids they had this year, but I've never seen more than three at a time. The
nest burrow is somewhere below Hiram's restaurant, I think, but I've never
tried to pinpoint it exactly. Two adult Herons in the trees and at least two
pair in the Heronry, but the heronry is hard to see from the locks. there
may be more.

Cliff Drake
ardea at uswest.net
Seattle, WA