Subject: Green Lake, Seattle, count (long)
Date: Jan 31 23:03:13 2001
From: MartinMuller - MartinMuller at email.msn.com


Greetings tweetsters,

A busy schedule has kept me from regularly posting my weekly Green Lake
counts to tweeetsr. For those of you who in the past expressed appreciation
for the posting; my apologies.

This morning was mild (50F?), with light drizzle on and off. I started my
count at the Aqua Theater (as opposed to my usual starting point at the
Community Center/Evans Pool side), which is to blame for the high count of
Barrow's Goldeneyes (see note for that species).

This winter has seen low numbers of fish eating birds on the lake. Most
notable is the almost complete absence of Double-crested Cormorants. Also
few Common Mergansers. I can only assume that the age and size class fish
these birds prefer are lacking/depressed.

As per usual the number before the comma are males, after the comma females.
a ~ symbol indicates I only estimated the number. An asterisk indicates a
note at the end.

Pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) 13*
Double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) 1
Great blue heron (Ardea herodias) 1
Canada goose (Branta canadensis) 103
domestic geese 6
Gadwall (Anas strepera) 23,16
Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope) 3,0*
American wigeon (Anas americana) 126,96*
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 59,42
Northern shoveler (Anas clypeata) 7,8
Greater scaup (Aythya marila) 1,1
Lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) 1,2
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) 6,4
Common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) 3,1
Barrow's goldeneye (Bucephala islandica) 22,17*
Common merganser (Mergus merganser) 3,5
Ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) 27,29
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) 1,1*
American coot (Fulica americana) 170
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) 2
Mew gull (Larus canus) 34
Ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis)28
Thayer's gull (Larus thayeri) 1?
Glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens) 18
pink-legged hybrid gulls 3
Rock dove (Columba livia) 8
Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) 1,1
Northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) 2,1
crow spp (Corvus spp.) ~400*
Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 29
Chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens) 1
Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) 48
Red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) 2
Brown creeper (Certhia americana) 1
Winter wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) 1
Golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa) ~30
Ruby-crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula) 2
American robin (Turdus migratorius) 18
European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 38
Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 4
Dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis) 8
Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 3,8
Brewer's blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) 14*
American goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) ~60
House sparrow (Passer domesticus) 18


Pied-billed Grebe:
Until two weeks ago there were close to 30 grebes on the lake. Then it
dropped to the current level. One observation of note is that the five
siblings raised in one of the four successful nests from last breeding
season still appear to be hanging out together, usually near the Aqua
Theater. Not only are the five birds in each other's vicinity during the
day, they spend the night close to the Aqua Theater (near the dock where
half the Mallards on the lake spend the night). Since these birds are not
individually marked I have no way of being certain that these birds are
indeed the siblings from one of the four successful nests on the lake, but
observations throughout the intervening period lead me to believe they are
(literally hundreds of hours of observing these guys).

Eurasian Wigeon:
Along with three males there's one male Eurasian x American wigeon hybrid.
He's got the gray flanks and pinkish breast of the Eurasian, but the creamy
crown and broad green eye-stripe of the American. In addition he has a
chestnut sheen to his cheeks.

American Wigeon:
About 100 fewer than in the past few winters.

Barrow's Goldeneye:
A few years ago I discovered that a flock of Barrow's Goldeneyes (varying in
number from 20 - 70) come to roost on Green Lake. I haven't determined
exactly what time they arrive yet, but it's some time after dark. They leave
before sunrise, although occasionally a few may be caught lingering on when
it's light. They roost in a single flock, joined by the Common Goldeneyes
and frequently the Common Mergansers as well, outside the willows east of
the Aqua Theater. They leave the lake in small groups, usually twos and
threes. They always fly toward the center of the lake, gain altitude, and
head across Woodland Park or Phinney Ridge to the west, towards the Sound.
Even if a large group takes off together, by the time they leave the lake
westward, they are flying in twos and threes. What are they looking for?
Shelter from the wind and waves? Would movement between fresh and salt water
have an anti-parasite function for these birds (like sea going vessels used
to visit fresh water to kill the barnacles on their hulls; a poor analogy, I
know)? Need to read up on this.

Bald Eagle:
We have a pair at the Lake. Last year's nesting attempt across the street
from the Lake failed. The female disappeared right around the time when
incubation was supposed to start. The male hung around till early summer.
Right around the time when the WA State Dept. of Fish & Wildlife received a
report of an adult eagle killed by a float plane over Aurora Bridge the male
disappeared. Coincidence? Since October the Lake has been visited by eagles
and a pair has been collecting and carrying sticks, not only down at the
Lake but also up the hill in the Zoo. Currently it looks like the birds are
working on their pair bond, including fine tuning their coordination by
hunting coots together. They wait for a single coot swimming a reasonable
distance from shore and head out for it. The eagles take turns diving at the
coot, forcing it under, and if the eagles are lucky one of them will end up
diving when the unlucky coot pops to the surface. Two weeks ago a group of
us watched as the female landed in the water on top of the coot. She
eventually flew to the island with the still very much alive coot. The crows
came over and harassed the eagle, who had a precarious grip on the coot. The
coot, meantime was looking down from halfway up the tree, a
once-in-a-lifetime experience for it (sorry). After about five minutes the
eagle flew around, securing a better grip on the coot, landing in the same
branch, and finally killing the coot and starting to eat. Fewer and fewer
coots swim alone out in the middle of the lake......Flocks are much safer.
I'm hoping the eagles will nest at the Lake this year, although that will
surely mean we will be deprived of last summer's spectacle of the Osprey
family (two adults that raised four young elsewhere but brought them to the
Lake for fishing lessons).

Crows:
Out of the thousands of crows that spend the night at the Foster Island
winter roost site, a few hundred head for the Green Lake area. For a brief
period each morning (15-20 minutes) there will be hundreds of crows (about
half in the Aqua Theater area, the others in the Community Center area) at
the Lake. Minutes later just a handful are left as they spread out over the
neighborhood. One of those things: by staying in bed a few minutes longer I
can avoid having to count crows....

Brewer's Blackbird:
I cheat. I know that I can find this particular flock in the Albertsons
parking lot across the street from the Park at this time of day, so I "pick
them up" as I walk home. They do frequent the park and are already starting
to show interest in the bushy evergreens along the eastern shore where
they've been breeding the past few years.

Cheers,
Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com