Tweeters,

I apologize if this is an old topic.

I just recently restarted walking around Green Lake again, after being
out of commission with bad knees for over a year. I've also been
offline for a while, so I've missed any recent discussion of this topic.

But... where are all the pied-billed Grebes on Green Lake? Should there
be many birds and at least a half-dozen nests in progress at this
point? Or is it still too early?

So far I've seen just two birds. One of these was building a nest in
the northern-most lilly-pad area maybe a week ago. But today the nest
was still a mess and I saw no bird.

I suppose all the people walking on the improved pathway is part of the
problem, but I wonder if it isn't the huge increase in fishermen in
recent years. A decade ago, there were hardly any fishermen at the
lake. But these days, they occupy virtually every flat place next to
the lake. Given that these little birds are so painfully shy, perhaps
the constant presence of the fishermen scares them away. In fact,
today, there were a couple of fishermen just a few yards south of the
lillypad area mentioned above.

There used to always be at least one bird over on the southeast side,
opposite Kirkwood Street (I think). But no more.

Perhaps there are fewer PBGR (?) everywhere, and not just at Green
Lake. Or maybe I'm just not seeing them. Martin, what gives?

Bob Mauritsen
Seattle
Bluetooth at compuserve.com