Despite frequent scrub jay sightings in our Ballard neighborhood much of last year, Kris Baker and I were unable to confirm any nesting activity. Kris saw a scrub jay at about 8th and 53rd about two weeks ago, the area we saw them last year. Kris also had an observation at Market and 10th ave, on that same day two weeks ago.

Today Kris and I saw our first purple martins of the year, at a friend's house on Schinke Rd near Woodard Bay on Henderson Inlet, near Olympia. It was checking out a nest box, much to the dismay of the tree swallows. At Woodard Bay we saw at least 5 common loons, some of which were calling, but we saw no purple martins during our mid day visit.

At Luhr Beach at the mouth of Mcallister Creek we heard purple martins to the NW, but were unable to see them. Just to the North was our season's first Bonaparte's gull in bright breeding plumage. At the Nisqually NWR we had good looks at a bittern and a great horned owl; other birds included yellow rumped warblers, yellowthroat, ring necked duck, wood duck, and brown creeper.

We left the refuge headquarters at 803 pm, and saw the gates close just as we approached within about 100 feet. At least three other cars were locked in. We called the phone number posted at the gate for such situations, and a security person arrived about 20 minutes later to free us. With heavy traffic to Seattle, we got in about 10pm. It was a long day, but very nice overall.

Kevin Li
Ballard, USA
kdli at msn.com



----- Original Message -----
From: Ruth Taylor
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 6:24 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Cc: kdli at msn.com
Subject: Scrub jays, etc.


Hi All:

This morning, when I plodded out to retrieve the paper at about 7:00, a
Western Scrub-jay flew into a Doug-fir across the street. At about 8:45,
there were two scrub-jays in a deciduous tree across the street. I live in
Ballard, near the intersection of 8th & 60th. I wonder if this could be the
pair that were hanging out near 53rd & 8th last year - don't know if nesting
was confirmed. Kevin Li, do you know?

Also, two more ultra urban White-crowned Sparrow nesting reports from
downtown - in the plantings in the courtyard at Two Union Square and in the
bushes at the Federal Courthouse.

Ruth Taylor
Seattle/Ballard
rutht at seanet.com<br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href="http://explorer.msn.com">http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>
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