12:10pm start - water level low with all mudflats visible
1248pm end

Tweeters,
The clouds passed, and the sunshine is "jes' fine." I estimate the OSPREY young to be within 12 days of fledging, but...my calculations could be off. The adult female has started spending small bits of time off the nest.

LEAST SANDPIPERS are still active in the area, with five of the peeps feeding at the edge of the mudbank just above Turning Basin #3.

Note: Below this report is a late report of observations I made at Hamm Creek and Turning Basin #3 on Sunday.

Birds seen during this scan include the following:
Canada Goose (40; actual count, not estimate)
Mallard (9)
Common Merganser (1 adult; 3 quite mature young // see note below this report)
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey (2 adults and 3 young at Hamm Creek site)
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer (7)
Least Sandpiper (5)
Glaucous-winged Gull (3)
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon (12)
American Crow (7)
Violet-green Swallow (~50)
Cliff Swallow (7; but number is more likely significantly higher - lots of movement to/from nesting site at Boeing bridge)
Barn Swallow
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren (heard)
European Starling (125; lots and lots of combined families)
Song Sparrow
House Finch (4)
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow (7)
--------

7-11-2004 - Hamm Creek and Turning Basin #3 (TB3) (water level low, all mudflats visible)
After helping the People for Puget Sound (PPS) with their monthly Sunday survey at T-105 (what a great picnic spot that is!), Puget Creek, and the GSA site (where I saw my first PIGEON GUILLEMOT on the river), I headed to Hamm Creek to have lunch and check out the river. Swallows, sparrows, and sandpipers galore, and phenomenal views of some of these. In addition, from one viewpoint on Hamm Creek, I could scope the east side of the river and much of the south side of the Turning Basin.

Highlights were plentiful (the restoration going on at Hamm Creek is in and of itself a highlight), but here are a few:
While most of the LEAST SANDPIPERS I saw during the PPS survey and at TB3 were expending a lot of energy feeding and flying from mudbank to mudbank, the five at Hamm Creek (feeding just before the creek takes the last turn to deposit in the Duwamish) were active, but walking from spot-to-spot in the gravel of that area. Eventually, all five tucked their bills under and snoozed. I was within 30 feet of them, using some willows as a blind, and my scope view was extraordinary. Also at that point of the creek were three AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES and a double-handful of HOUSE SPARROWS bathing in a around the LESAs.

Upriver, a COMMON MERGANSER and six very small (less than 1-week-old) young cruised south along the east bank of TB3. Another COME family (1 adult, 3 big young) were snoozing on the mudflat near the goose exclusion zone. It seems to me that the recent hatching is very late.

Eleven LEAST SANDPIPERS and 14 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS were on the mudflat at the south end of TB3; the sandpipers very active, and the cormorants not, drying their wings.

Birds seen at Hamm Creek included the following (number of individuals shown only in some cases):
Canada Goose
Mallard
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey (the family; great views of an adult feeding the young)
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
American Crow
Violet-green Swallow (many)
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
American Robin
European Starling
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Birds seen at Turning Basin #3 included the following:
Canada Goose (many)
Mallard
Common Merganser (one family of 4 and one of 7 (very small young)
Double-crested Cormorant (14)
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper (11)
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
American Crow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Marsh Wren (heard as I drove by the restoration area)
European Starling
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

If you have the opportunity, visit T-105 and Puget Creek. The latter has very good views of the west and north sides of Kellogg Island. For directions, please see the following for information on the lower Duwamish, including directions to T-105, Puget Creek Park, Hamm Creek, and Turning Basin #3: http://www.pugetsound.org/vshrmp/King/

May all your birds be identified,

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