Hello, tweeters.

I had such a good birding trip this morning at Spencer Island that I
wanted to share it. There were lots of migrants, including a few species
I'd never before seen at this locality (asterisked below). We walked
around the north loop from 9:30-11:30, a sunny, warm (and surprisingly
muggy) walk, ideal conditions for birding. This is what we saw/heard
(birds on sewage ponds added in parentheses). The tide was very high, so
no shorebird foraging habitat. Our time was constrained, so I didn't
check out every single flash of feathers as I might have at another time.

Pied-billed Grebe - 5
Great Blue Heron - 8
Canada Goose - (100)
Green-winged Teal - 50
Mallard - 30
Northern Pintail - 50
Northern Shoveler - 100 (10)
Gadwall - (3)
American Wigeon - 1
Ruddy Duck - (6)
quite a few distant female-plumaged ducks were left unidentified (they
didn't complain)
Osprey - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Virginia Rail - at least 6 heard
American Coot - 20 (20)
Solitary Sandpiper - 1*
Western Sandpiper - (7)
Mew Gull - (10)
Ring-billed Gull - 1 (10)
Glaucous-winged Gull - (10)
Rock Dove - 1
Vaux's Swift - 6
Belted Kingfisher - 4
Red-breasted Sapsucker - 1 juv.*
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Western Wood-Pewee - 2
Willow Flycatcher - 12
Pacific-slope Flycatcher - 1
Purple Martin - 20+* (roosting on tall snags all along slough on east
side island)
Tree Swallow - 1
Violet-green Swallow - 12
Bank Swallow - 5
Cliff Swallow - 1
Barn Swallow - 400
surely more of all the swallow species, mixed in a sky full of Barn
Swallows
Steller's Jay - 3 (a great place to see this "resident" species on the
move)
American Crow - 3
Black-capped Chickadee - 8
House Wren - 1*
Marsh Wren - 8
Swainson's Thrush - 1
American Robin - 10
Cedar Waxwing - 40
European Starling - 12
Orange-crowned Warbler - 4
Yellow Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
MacGillivray's Warbler - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 2
lots more warblers, many flitting through the trees and shrubs remained
unidentified
Western Tanager - 5
Black-headed Grosbeak - 1
Spotted Towhee - 1
Savannah Sparrow - 5
Song Sparrow - 5
Lincoln's Sparrow - 8
Golden-crowned Sparrow - 1
Purple Finch - 2
House Finch - 30
American Goldfinch - 8

The total of 57 species on a 2-hour walk this close to Seattle impressed
me. I think this is one of the *great* birding spots in the local area.
For all its extensive freshwater marshes, however, it's not very
productive of dragonflies!

Dennis Paulson

Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 528-1382