10:41am start: Water level at 0.5ft
11:02am end: Water level at 1.0ft

Tweeters,
Sunshine called me outside a little earlier than usual, and the 70+degrees was just fine. A lone CALIFORNIA GULL on the west bank was in "company" of a female GADWALL. This odd couple was broken up when the gull raised wings and walked toward the Gadwall, which then walked quickly to the water and paddled away. The California Gull was the first sighting I've made of this species from my perch on the river. Most of the GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS had an opportunistic banquet of beached salmon, a few (at least 5) of which were still in gillnets on the mud. The PIED-BILLED GREBE was at the goose-exclusion area, but climbed on shore to sit on the bank just above the water. This was the first time I'd seen a Pied-billed Grebe on shore, although I've seen them at nests. When the tide rose to the grebe, it launched back into the water.

Note: When I left work yesterday at 3:20pm, I glanced at the river below and saw 5 Canada Geese swimming in the very high tide. They were feeding on the blackberries hanging down over the river. And picking only the ripe berries. One goose, which had plucked all the low-hanging-fruit above it, rose up, extended its neck, and selected a ripe berry from amongst a cluster of otherwise unripe berries. It continued swimming downriver and fed on the late-summer bounty with the rest of the geese, but it was the only one I saw that often used a giraffe-like extension to select berries above the "normal" swimming line.

Birds seen today included the following:
Pied-billed Grebe
Gadwall
Mallard (3)
Osprey (adult on the west power tower)
Killdeer
Mew Gull (4)
California Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull (9)
Rock Pigeon (7)
American Crow (8)
European Starling (~1500)
House Finch

May all your birds be identified,

Denis DeSilvis
Duwamish River, Seattle, WA
denis.j.desilvis at boeing.com