Hi Mary and Tweeters,
My wife and I were in Seward Park yesterday Sunday afternoon and saw a minimum of 7 of the Scarlet Fronted Parakeets in the place were they often hang out, high in trees up the hill above the main entrance parking lot the one on the north side of isthmus with the two buildings on either side of it. They usually make so much noise that if they are in the park, they aren't too hard to find. Also in the park were two singing Pileated Woodpeckers and singing Flickers, at least two Varied Thrush, Pine Siskins, Red Breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpecker, singing Winter and Bewick's Wrens, Bald Eagle and others.
A squadron of Violet Green Swallows showed up at our house on the 15th and worked themselves into a frenzy over our nestboxes. Two Swallows, either involved in pairbonding or fighting, got locked together at the box and fell into the rhododendron below. This happens a lot with these early groups of Violet greens, which I assume, perhaps wrongly, are on their way to Canada and just get excited when they see our nest boxes, which they seem to already be aware of before they get here. (One of our boxes has been continuously successfully utilized each year for at least six years straight.)
It's just so great having a nest box, I have to get evangelical. I have some from Garden Goodies that I sell for $20 but I don't keep them at my store anymore since they have proven to be a complete dud with the general public. So email me if you want me to have one and I'll bring it down to my store at the Pike Place Market and have it ready for you if anyone has a good Swallow nest site that is currently going begging.

Ed Newbold residential Beacon Hill newboldwildlife at netscape.net



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