11:21am start - water level low and dropping rapidly (actually looks like rapids to the SE of Turning Basin #3 (TB3)
12:17pm end

Tweeters,
A sunny, warm (~75deg F) day with the lowest tides in 19 years (-4.1 today) and it shows: you can see where TB3 was dredged this Spring and where it wasn't. The very quick-moving ebb gave a GREAT BLUE HERON a definite advantage as it fished along the mudflat northeast of the goose-exclusion area. The GBHE waded along the shallows, and eventually settled into an area where there was an eddy, with quick water flowing to the north. I counted 27 fish that it captured/ate, and know that I missed counting quite a few more. Most prey items were apx 2 inches long. Once, I saw it catch two fish with one "grab." It held both in its beak for a short time, then dropped one fish and swallowed the other. Then it took one step and snatched up the other fish from the surface. (The heron didn't have as much white on its head as more mature birds do. Most likely a non-breeding bird hatched last year?)

The male OSPREY closely followed an intruding Osprey as it circled above the Boeing facility, calling occasionally, and once diving on the intruder with talons down. Later, the male brought a fish to the female at the nest. She changed position several times: I'm still not certain if one of the eggs has hatched.

Had a UW Fisheries Research folks at the TB3 restoration site earlier in the morning, and another research boat (4 folks on this one) that cruised upstream well past the Boeing bridge. Someone on the latter vessel was taking lots of either video or stills.

Birds seen during this scan include the following:
Mallard (3)
Double-crested Cormorant (2)
Great Blue Heron
Osprey (3)
Killdeer
Glaucous-winged Gull (7)
Rock Pigeon (11)
American Crow (41; 36 of which were feeding on the mudflat near the goose-exclusion area)
Violet-green Swallow (4)
Cliff Swallow (8; 7 were gathering mud at one time near the stormwater runoff channel behind the restoration area (goose-exclusion zone))
Barn Swallow
Bewick's Wren
European Starling
Song Sparrow (2)
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch (2)
American Goldfinch (2)
House Sparrow

May all your birds be identified,

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