Subject: Montlake fill and a coot question
Date: Jul 31 09:38:54 2002
From: kjandrich at netscape.net - kjandrich at netscape.net


Hi Tweeters,

I got to spend some time at the fill last night and saw about a dozen Am. Coots, most of which I am guessing very recently returned. ?Their behavior was subdued except for 2 of them, one of which appeared to me to be nesting. ?Is it unusual for Coots to nest over here? ?All of them were located off of the dirt road behind the baseball stadium. ?The nest was visible on the edge of the cattails from the rickety bridge over the stream and from one opening in vegetation along the road.

Other things of note were an osprey feeding on a very red fleshed fish (salmon?)on the dead trees. ?I saw 3 shorebirds at the big pond with open shore. ?I would hazard a guess as to Dowitchers. ?Big, with reddish breast and a white streak over or near the eye on a brownish head. ?(got to learn those shorebirds...) A beautiful caspian tern flew over and I think I saw two green herons in flight. ?I startled one heron and it flew off too quickly to be sure of ID but I can't think of what else it could be, as it flew away it called and another flew up and joined it and then they dropped down just as about as soon as they flew up. ?Last but not least I saw a Common Yellowthroat female with food for a nest, and she was missing all of her tail feathers. ?Her mate was rather scruffy looking but he did have tail feathers. ?He also had food in the beak. ?They were very cagey and I couldn't figure out the nest location, so I left them be after a few minutes of observation. ?I am guessing something got ahold of her and she was lucky to get away.

Kathy

Kathy Andrich
Renton, WA
kjandrich at netscape.net



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