11:49am start - water level low and dropping; lots of mud being exposed
12:21pm end

Tweeters,
Just another blue-sky, 60-degree-plus, lunch-break on the river. Can you believe how gorgeous is the day? YEEOW! Spring is on the way....

A COOPER'S HAWK was on an alder (I think) beyond the goose-exclusion area to the south. I had the Coop square in the scope, but it departed so quickly to the east that I couldn't follow it. It could well be the same bird I originally spotted 2-17, and have seen a couple of times since. No signs of the Peregrine Falcon for about a week. Could it have paired up with the female that's downstream of Turning Basin no. 3, at the West Seattle Bridge? Here's hoping.

A RIVER OTTER caught something on or near the south bank, just downstream of the bridge into the Boeing plant, and carried it across the river to the north bank. Another observer, who had a different vantage point, thought the prey was a fish. A harbor seal coasted along downstream as I first arrived.

Birds seen during this scan include the following:
Canada Goose (3; flyby low along the river)
Gadwall (2; a pair)
Bufflehead (4; two males and two females)
Common Goldeneye (male)
Common Merganser (2; females)
Double-crested Cormorant (3)
Cooper's Hawk
Mew Gull (16)
Glaucous-winged Gull (9)
Rock Pigeon (21)
American Crow (6)
Bushtit (1 only!)
Bewick's Wren
European Starling (7; six were feeding on the drier parts of the exposed mudflats)
Song Sparrow (2)
Red-winged Blackbird (3; one male // two others may have been females)
House Finch

May all your birds be identified,

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