Hi hi -
Today I stopped in a few places nearby in King County, starting in
West Seattle & then moving down to Tukwila & Kent.
In West Seattle, at Jack Block park, BRANDTS, PELAGIC &
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS were present on the pilings off the
observation tower.

A little further west, where Harbor road becomes Alki Ave, a flock of
about 50 BLACK TURNSTONES & SURFBIRDS [more BLTU than SURF, but not
by much] was sitting on the rocks.

Out at Alki Point, just south of the lighthouse, BLACK, WHITE-WINGED
& SURF SCOTERS were around.

Next, I stopped by a spot in Tukwila shown to me a couple years back
by Kevin A. on a SAS gull class. The draw: A huge concentration of
THAYERS GULLS. Its the best place I know of nearby to have several
hundred Thayers available for close viewing, where the trick is
finding the Glaucous-winged Gulls among them instead of vice-versa.
Directions: Coming south on I-5, take exit 156 ["Tukwila Interurban
Ave"]. Turn right at the light onto Interurban Ave [northbound]. In
about 2/10 of a mile, turn right onto Gateway Rd. Follow this road
about 1/10 of a mile, then park in one of the non-reserved parking
spots around a building prominently marked 13075. Walk to the
Duwamish River, just beyond the buildings. The gulls bathe along the
river here [they seem lately to prefer a spot a little to the left,
near the big BECU building. They mostly roost on the metal rooftop of
the Yellow Transport company sheds just south of here. It is possible
to walk the paved trail along this area to get closer views of the
rooftop gulls if none are immediately present on the river.

Next, I headed to the Boeing Ponds, in Kent, where after a lot of
looking elsewhere I found the previously reported SAYS PHOEBE hanging
out pretty close to the parking spot. Also present on the ponds was a
nice diversity of ducks including at least one Eurasian Wigeon drake,
and one Muscovy-domestic escapee.

After Boeing Ponds, I headed down to 212th to try to re-locate the
Glaucous Gull. No luck. In fact, the fields that hosted many gulls
last week were devoid of even a single one. I don't know whether it
was my timing or a drying up of the fields -- the ponds nearby that
had hosted all the Eurasian Wigeons last week were also much drier &
host to many fewer ducks than last week.

Finally, I stopped at the mouth of the Cedar River in Renton. A
PEREGRINE FALCON was hanging out on the 'gull sandbars' when I
arrived, so the gull numbers were a bit low. However, after it zoomed
off, the gulls came streaming in. I picked out no unexpected gulls,
but there were a couple hundred gulls at minimum to sort through. GW,
HERRING, WESTERN, MEW, & RING-BILLED, and the hybrids.

Also notable throughout the morning were the numbers of Yellow-rumped
Warblers that popped up, starting with one at Jack Block, a couple in
Tukwila, and several at the Boeing Ponds.

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA

--