Carl and Tweeters

As I expect you know there's some special flora in Lake Sammamish Park too.
(Birds have taken a back seat to botany for me in recent years.) This sounds
like some major criminal activities in the works with some big money for
contractors and possibly favors or kickbacks for the officials that
facilitate it. I used to work in the Seattle Parks dept. It's run by
corrupt people with no appreciation for nature, but with a clear
appreciation of expensive consturction projects. I don't know how much
better King Co. Parks is. It's unfortunate that many people believe a
"park" is equivalent to a playground, ballfield, lawn, manicured flower bed
or an amusement park. I always thought a "park" was like a national park or
wildlife refuge. I hope those of us who understand the value of nature can
muster a succesful campaign to stop this.

Stewart Wechsler
ecostewart at quidnunc.net

-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Carl Haynie
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 4:10 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: Lake Sammamish State Park news


Hi Tweets,

Lake Sammamish State Park near Issaquah (King Co) may be getting
a major face lift to the conceivable detriment of birdlife there.
The Issaquah Press reports: "By 2008 the park could include a
giant aquatic center equipped with giant slides, a boardwalk with
restaurants and shops, a multi-purpose sports complex, and a
corporate picnic area." Egad!! The concept will be recommended
at a Dec. 4 meeting at Rattlesnake Lake Interpretive Center near
North Bend and is open to the public.

The birding was excellent at the park this morning. A full
list follows. Two new birds were added to the checklist at
http://www.pluggablelogic.com/aves/lssp/index.html: Trumpeter
Swan and Evening Grosbeak - though I suspect over the years both
species have been recorded there before...?

In that vein, if you know of any records not on the checklist,
please let me know. As a case in point, I'm still looking for
gallinaceous critters (I've had both quail and pheasant within
a mile of the park).

10/30/2003, 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
==================================
1 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE - an especially small-looking
("Tundra"?) juv. walking with large Canadas
175 Canada Goose
20 TRUMPETER SWAN - low fly-by of mostly adults, vocalizing
4 Gadwall
4 American Wigeon
25 Mallard
7 Northern Shoveler
5 Green-winged Teal
20 Lesser Scaup
5 Bufflehead
6 Hooded Merganser
2 Common Merganser
1 Pied-billed Grebe
30 Western Grebe
2 Double-crested Cormorant
2 Great Blue Heron
1 Cooper's Hawk
3 Red-tailed Hawk
200 American Coot
8 Killdeer
30 Mew Gull
20 Ring-billed Gull
30 California Gull
3 Herring Gull
15 Glaucous-winged Gull
2 Belted Kingfisher
4 Downy Woodpecker
2 Hairy Woodpecker
2 Northern Flicker
1 NORTHERN SHRIKE (imm) - in the back end of park
4 Steller's Jay
25 American Crow
20 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
3 Bewick's Wren
3 Winter Wren
15 Marsh Wren
10 Golden-crowned Kinglet
10 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
8 American Robin
45 European Starling
3 Cedar Waxwing
10 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Townsend's Warbler
6 Spotted Towhee
20 Fox Sparrow
18 Song Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
20 Red-winged Blackbird
15 House Finch
2 Pine Siskin
2 American Goldfinch
2 EVENING GROSBEAK - vocalizing fly-bys

Cheers and Good Birding,

Carl Haynie
Sammamish, WA
http://www.pluggablelogic.com/aves/lssp/index.html
Carl dot Haynie AT pluggablelogic dot com

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