11:30am start - water level low with all mudflats visible during
outgoing tide (low (2.18ft at 12:41pm)
12:06pm end

Tweeters,
Overcast, with cool southwest breeze, and many coho jumping at Turning
Basin #3 (TB3). The two guys fishing from the pier opposite me kept the
normally omnipresent Rock Pigeons away from that area, but the one
fishing boat that drifted in and out of TB3 didn't seem to spook too
many birds.

Three GREEN HERONS were actively hunting. As with my last report, one
GRHE was on the south shore of the stormwater channel; one GRHE was
under the Boeing bridge at the southeast part of TB3; but a third,
juvenile GRHE was also working the area around the bridge-tending adult.
(Beth S: these could be the same birds you saw at Hamm Creek two weeks
ago. I've been looking for the juv.) These small herons appear to have
found a productive area to feed.

Three BELTED KINGFISHERS seen at the same time are a high for TB3. Lots
of interaction between the lone female and one of the males, with the
female posturing extensively from a perch, then rousting one of the
males from its nearby perch (repeatedly). The two males occasionally
interacted.

Lots of GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS (25) with 16 of them just below me in the
area around a salmon carcass.

Birds seen during this scan include the following:
Mallard (15)
Common Merganser (5)
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron (3; 2 adults, one juv)
Osprey (2; both initially on the west power tower (Hamm Creek) with one
of those leaving to circle over TB3)
Mew Gull (6)
Glaucous-winged Gull (25)
Rock Pigeon (9)
Belted Kingfisher (3; 2 males, one female)
American Crow (13)
European Starling (2)
Song Sparrow

May all your birds be identified,

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