Hi All,

Delia and I did an early half-day trip with Rick Droker to the Two Rivers Wildlife Unit today.

(Two Rivers WMU: WDFW land south of Monroe, WA at confluence of Skykomish and Snoqualmie Rivers. Stewardship pass, available at Fred Meyers, is required. Directions: from downtown Monroe turn south on State 203 and then turn right on Tualco Road. Drive Tualco till you get to a mostly unmarked parking lot that accesses a Bigleaf Maple Forest (Caution: The trees there are massively bedecked with moss and ferns and look almost as unrealistic as in Lord of the Rings). A quarter mile south is the old prison farm with a lake with many ducks, and a little further south is another parking lot which is the main south parking lot).

D & I were trying to duplicate our tweeter-inspired luck there last year when we ticked off a Swamp Sparrow. That wasn?t going to happen today but we had a good day. It culminated when we crossed the boardwalk across the slough from the south parking lot and arrived at a cornfield with a small willow in the middle. For 10 minutes the three of us counted birds in this little tree and came up with 14 species, a number that made us think of Guinness although this category would never be appealing to them. It lacks a certain stupid mindlessness.

Here are the birds in that little tree in all in a 10 minute period, mostly multiple individuals:

1.Spotted Towhee (2 or more)
2. Varied Thrush
3.Red winged Blackbird (many)
4.Flicker
5. Lincoln?s Sparrow
6. White Crowned Sparrow
7. Golden Crowned Sparrow
8.White Throated Sparrow (2 or 3)
9. Song Sparrow
10. Downy Woodpecker
11Am. Robin
12 Dark Eyed Junco
13.Yellow Rumped Warbler
14. House Finch

Well, so much for the Guinness tree. Anyway, here?s the overall list, sorry for the redundancy.

1. Evening Grosbeak (about 8 looking tropical in the Bigleaf Maples)
2. Varied Thrush (about 5 total)
3. Steller?s Jay
4. Northern Raven
5. Winter Wren
6. Bewick?s Wren
7. Black Capped Chickadee
8. Song Sparrow
9. White Crowned Sparrow
10. Ring Necked Duck
11. Mallard
12. Wood Duck (about 4)
13. American Wigeon
14. Coot
15. Canada Geese
16. Green Winged Teal
17. Pintail
18. Northern Shoveler
19. Great Blue Heron
20. Spotted Towhee
21. Brown Creeper (4 or so singing)
22. Bald Eagle (many)
23. Red Tail (constant calling, many birds)
24. Flicker (many)
25. American Robin (ditto)
26. Golden Crowned Kinglet
27. Crow
28. Bufflehead
29. Ring Billed Gull
30. Trumpeter Swans (about 15)
31. Dark Eyed Junco
32. European Starling
33. Double Crested Cormorant
34. Red Winged Blackbird
35. Lincoln?s Sparrow
36. Ruby Crowned Kinglet
37. Red Breasted Sapsucker
38. Hooded Merganser
39. House Finch
40. White Throated Sparrow
41. Downy Woodpecker
42. Glaucous Winged Gull
43. Tree Swallow (2 or 3)
44. American Kestrel (prison farm)

Two Rivers makes a great trip, with lots of opportunity to get out and walk and lots of birds.

Good luck to the effort to save Reardon Ponds (see yesterday's Tweeters and kudos for the great article on that in WA Birder.

Ed Newbold Beacon Hill, Seattle newboldwildlife at netscape.net







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