Hello, I am a brand new subscriber to Tweeters on the web. We have lived on
the north end of the Sammamish Plateau for 20 years and for the first ten
years were avid backyard birders, then real life took over for awhile and we
have now started to renew our passion.

So much has changed in the last ten years, so much lost habitat, or changed
habitat. Here are some changes we've noticed: (I'll just name a few)

Purple Finches.....the first few years here we had flocks every winter, in
about 1986 we noticed the house finches moving in (and we had frequent
yellow and orange variants!). Now even the house finches seem to be gone.
Is it just our subdivision, or is there a decline in purple finches?

Violet Green Swallows.....we have had a nesting box that was succesfully
used yearly from 1985 to 2000....we always looked forward to our "swallows
of capistrano" returning to usher in spring....but for the last two
years....nothing! An occasional fly over but not the prime real estate it
used to be, I guess!

Swainson's Thrushes.....how I miss their evening song! I do believe this is
just our sub-division, however, as we do hear them if we walk down to the
areas that haven't been developed.

Of course, the gray squirrels ran out the red Douglas squirrels years ago.
Luckily, we haven't had any house sparrows yet, although they have
encroached up from the local Safeway to as close as 1/2 mile from our house.

On the other hand, we have recently put in a pond with "bird food" (comet
goldfish) and have attracted great blue herons and a kingfisher!

Also, last year a black bear got stuck in a tree in a neighbor's yard one
block down from us, and our son spotted a cougar on 228th Ave NE last fall
(documented).

If anyone has any answers as to where our purple finches and violet greens
have gone, it would be appreciated.

Bird On!


Andrea
Sammamish WA
mailto: oh_andrea at hotmail.com




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