Got out for a couple hours yesterday morning for some local birding. I
abandoned my original plan of Boston Harbor in favor of a few downtown
birding spots. Keith Brady had mentioned that there were still 6 REDHEADS
on Capitol Lake on the 26th, so I decided to double check his counting
skills. Sure enough there were 4 drakes and 2 hen REDHEADS at the southern
extreme of the lake by the "Interpretive Center". Four of them 'seemed'
paired up with two drakes on the outskirts, one drake that was off by
himself wasn't quite in alternate plumage yet, his chest still had brown
flecking mixed in with the dark. The rest were in glorious color. Sibley's
Guide notes that the alternate plumage is held from October to June, but
this was really my first time seeing these local wintering birds in this
plumage...even late December they still didn't have these colors. Since
conditions were so great I watched them for a bit, don't usually get to see
females too often (who really wants to watch them anyways?) and noticed that
they seemed to have a pale area on the face in front of the bill which
superficially resembled the female Scaup pattern. Anyway, overall numbers
are WAY down from December. Probably about a quarter as many
Bufflehead/Scaup/Wigeon/R/N Duck.

Also around here were:
2 G/W Teal (can be hit or miss here)
Gadwall
About 10 Canvasback
Coot

Over at the Swantown and KGY/Genoa's (North Point as SOME label it) area I
struck out on relocating the Townsend's Warblers that we had on the CBC
(though I hear B. Tweit had one in the area a few days ago). High tide
brought the waterfowl in real close which was nice. The sun had the
wintering 'pugetensis' WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS singing...though the song
lacked the ending I'm used to hearing during the spring/summer. Not sure
what's going on there...Oh to have my own set of Birds of NA. Also had nice
views of a Myrtle YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER. One RED-NECKED GREBE out on the
water and a couple of PELAGIC CORMORANTS on their perches. No loons or
alcids. Usual assortment of waterfowl (R/B Mergs, both usual Scoters, 1
Hoodie, 4 Barrow's Goldeneye, Common Goldeneye). No Peregrine, though Keith
seems to see two around there often...hopefully they'll retry their nesting
this year.

On a side note the wintering (maybe they'll stay?) SHORT-EARED OWLS at
Nisqually seem to be easier to see lately. I've heard reports from four
people of seeing one flying and perched near the McAllister Creek trail
towards where the Shrike has been seen this winter. So we don't have to go
all the way to West-90 anymore! Now if we could just get a regular Gyr at
Nisqually.

Jason Paulios
Jpaulios at earthlink.net
Olympia, WA