I stole away for a few minutes yesterday to look at a pair of birding
sites in Tacoma, and my short visits were greeted with some good,
although not unexpected sightings.

First, in the morning at the Adriana Hess Audubon Center - home of
Tahoma Audubon - along a wetland area in University Place, I watched an
OSPREY fly overhead and land in a fir tree along the edge of the wetland
and pond. Right after it passed overhead, a large COOPER'S HAWK made a
dive at the Osprey. The hawk's dive scared up a number of other birds -
crows, starling, Barn and Tree Swallows.

Later in the day, as the sun went down behind the Olympic Mountains,
Natalie and I made a stop along Ruston Way to get a count for the number
of PURPLE MARTINS that have been nesting in the boxes at Dickman Mill
Park - near the Harbor Lights restaurant. We arrived around 8 p.m. and
watched nine Purple Martins soaring and calling as they swooped over
Commencement Bay. But a few minutes later the number of Purple Martins
doubled. All in all, we saw 18 martins in flight and it appears there
are two young martins about to fledge for a grand total of 20 Purple
Martins at the site right now. This is quite an increase from last year,
when we only saw 12 Purple Martins at the site near the end of their stay.

There are sure signs of fall in the air along the Tacoma waterfront
though, as we saw small movements of BONAPARTE'S GULLS flying together
over Commencement Bay - early previews of the thousands of Bonaparte's
that can often be seen flying in large flocks over the bay in the late
fall and winter evenings.

Back home in the yard, it is fun these days to watch the flocks of
BUSHTITS that are making regular visits to the fennel growing along our
front sidewalk. And the number of WESTERN SCRUB JAYs in our part of
Tacoma's North End are either changing their habits to spend more time
around our yard or, more likely, increasing in numbers year-over-year.
As I bike into work in the mornings I hear one or two scrub jays near
our yard, with others interspersed between the North End along my bike
route to downtown Tacoma. A couple of weeks ago I heard a scrub jay
calling in Wright Park - the closest I have heard or seen the species in
downtown Tacoma.

Happy birding!

Rob McNair-Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
Author of Birding Washington (Falcon Publishing, 2004)
and Insider's Guide to the Olympic Peninsula (Globe Pequot, 2001)
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com

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