Hi Tweeters,

I finally made it up to the Everett area to check out the treatment ponds,
Spencer Island, and the waterfront area. I had to convince my husband that
going to treatment ponds would be fun...hehe.

After getting our permit we headed out to the pond trail. We were greated
by the amuzing ruckus made by 100's (1000's?) of Bonapart Gulls. We watched
them while occasionally dodging all the hyper-active Barn Swallows. There
were American Widgeons, Coots, Mallards, and Northern Shovelers mixed in
with the gulls. There were a few Mew Gulls and a few Lesser Yellowlegs
that we kept startling off the edge of the pond. They would fly onto the
cement wall just off the shore and give us pathetic harrassed looks. We did
the same to one Least Sandpiper as well. While watching all of this I
finally noticed that in amongst all the Bonaparts there were nearly
identical birds but with bright red-orange legs and a little more marking on
the head. After a bunch of looking and relooking in my book I deduced these
to be Little Gulls.
There were quite a few small birds that wouldn't hold still long enough for
me to ID them. And then there were the birds I hardly need to see to know
what they are such as Crows, Starlings, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Canadian
Geese.

We then moved on to Spencer Island were we only hiked the Southern Part. We
were treated to two Osprey...one making quite a bit of noise. There were
Robins "chupping" at us as we disturbed them. Black-capped Chicakdees
chickadeeing. We heard ducks off in the distance but could not see them. I
was actually amazed at the height of the brambles and brush which make
seeing into the marsh mostly impossible on the lower part of the south end
of the island. We had to turn around and walk back the same way since the
foot bridge is out on the east side. We wandered down towards the barn when
we got back to the entrance, but couldn't go very far due to the trail being
flooded. But while standing there I looked up into a snag and was treated
to a very dark colored Merlin, (possibly the pacific black subspecies?)

We visited the Everett water front next. We were getting hungry so we didn't
spend a lot of time. However we did see quite a few Great Blue Herons, Ring
Billed Gulls, one Western Grebe, one Red-breasted Merganser, and one Belted
King Fisher as a lovely finale.

Happy Birding,

Maurie Kirschner
Seattle WA
maurieckirschnerATcomcast.net