10:24am start - water level dropping; mudflats mostly exposed
11:11am end

Tweeters,
CROOAAK! That loud call made me look up quickly--just in time to see my first CASPIAN TERN this year here at Turning Basin #3. The tern flew upriver, then banked to the west toward the goose-exclusion area dive bombing a couple of Glaucous-winged Gulls that were on the water. The tern dove on the gulls twice, and the gulls took to the air flying downstream. I lost the tern after that.

The sweet notes of a singing AMERICAN GOLDFINCH also made me look up to the birch tree nearby. Sure enough, the bright male bird was about 15ft away. This also was a first for the year.

Birds seen during this scan include the following:
Canada Goose (11)
Gadwall (4)
Green-winged Teal (still hanging around the northwest side of the goose-exclusion area)
Common Merganser
Double-crested Cormorant (19; lots of flybys)
Great Blue Heron
Osprey (2)
Glaucous-winged Gull (5)
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon (13)
Belted Kingfisher
American Crow (4)
Violet-green Swallow (2)
Swallow spp (lots to the north of the Osprey nest)
European Starling (3)
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird (2)
House Finch (3)

May all your birds be identified,

Denis DeSilvis
Seattle, WA
mailto:denis.j.desilvis at boeing.com