hi tweets~
yesterday morning, kendrick wong and i had a delightul walk at spencer
island. we encountered an abundance of warblers: YELLOW, WILSON'S,
ORANGE-CROWNED, and YELLOW-RUMPED. throughout our walk, we couldn't help
but notice that the MARSH WRENS certainly rule the cattails! at times their
calls drowned out all others. COMMON YELLOWTHROATS also made their presence
known.

early on the walk, just as we crossed the bridge and approached the old
barn, one sound caught our attention. just behind the porta-potty, we
noticed a fairly persistant "pik" call. looking up into a tree there, we
found a male LAZULI BUNTING. it was not in the mood for just perching for
us, however. it flitted about and quickly moved to another nearby tree,
then onto another, still calling. we managed to get a good look at it
before it flew completely out of view. lovely bird!

other interesting sights involved preparation for and attempts at breeding.
we saw several incidents of copulation between tree swallows. we also found
a great blue heron tending to a nest, however, no eggs nor young were
noticed. not surprisingly, considering the great numbers of these birds in
the area, we were treated to a close-up view of a marsh wren carefully
building a nest. (quite a nice one, from my point of view.)

happy birding!

isadora arevalo wong
seattle, wa
chupaflor at igc.org