Hi Tweeters -
I spent the chilly day birding around King County. Mostly, I followed
the shoreline south starting in West Seattle and moving down from
there. I ended the day with a couple of stops in Kent, just a little
too late for the Baikal Teal....

Alki Point & Duwamish Head beach, West Seattle [Delorme p. 79 C-5 ,
WA ABA p. 162]
All three cormorants were present around the Duwamish Head beach this
morning [I've heard of Brandts Cormorants being there before, but
never found them myself until today]
BLACK TURNSTONE & SURFBIRDS. Only a few of each, along the rocks, at
about the 11-1300 blocks of Admiralty Way.

Also, around Alki Point were several female BLACK SCOTERS, as well as
several WWScoters, a couple of HARLEQUIN DUCKS & a dozen or more
BRANT.

Des Moines Marina, Des Moines [Delorme p. 63 A-6, WA ABA p. 197-8]
Saltwater State Park, Woodmont Beach [Delorme p. 63 A/B-6, WA ABA p. 197-8]
Dumas Beach Park, Lakota [Delorme p. 63 B-5, WA ABA p. 197-8]

At these three stops, waterfowl numbers were pretty low -
I found plenty of Horned & Red-necked Grebes, but no Westerns.
At Des Moines, I had my only loon for the day, a PACIFIC, as well as
my only alcid, a PIGEON GUILLEMOT.
WWScoters were present in better numbers than I'd seen before at
these stops,though - still under 10 each place though.

Over in Kent, at the intersection of 167 & 277th,[Delorme p. 63 B-6]
the 2 TRUMPETER SWANS were still present where Marv Breece reported
them yesterday, in the field NW of the intersection [parking pull-off
on West Valley Hwy works well for looks.

Down at the Thomas Wetlands, south off 277th, just east of 167, were
10 LEAST SANDPIPERS and
1 SPOTTED SANDPIPER
I ran into Marv Breece and he alerted me to keep an eye out for a
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. Sure enough, after a little walk north on the bike
path, I got great looks at a RLHA flying overhead & perched on a
power pole.

Finally, I stopped at the Kent Ponds from 3-4 to look for the Baikal
Teal. I ran into some of the out of town birders as I parked, and
they were happy to report the teal was present & being watched. But
by the time I got up the observation tower, the elusive Baikal had
hidden itself away in the reeds. I spent the next hour with a few
other birders, shivering and watching a patch of reeds for any signs
of Baikalosity. No luck.

At 4, I called it a day and headed home. Hopefully it reappeared for
the 2 who were still on watch after I left.

A good day,

Matt Bartels
Seattle WA
--