Hi Tweets:
This is about birds and ships. My husband and I watched the parade of Tall
Ships Tacoma yesterday from
Brown's Point near Federal Way. Brown's Point is the area w/ the
lighthouse, north of
Tacoma's Commencement Bay. From here there is a nice view of Vashon Island
and the mouth of Quartermaster Harbor, Point Defiance, and the Ruston
Way-Asarco shores of Tacoma. We arrived about 12:45pm and I watched birds
and ships. The ships and many, many beautiful sail boats were pulling out
of Quartermaster Harbor, raising their sails including some square-rigged
sails. They then sailed slowly across the gap between Vashon Island and Pt.
Defiance. Then they sailed along the Tacoma Waterfront along Ruston Way
toward downtown Tacoma. The Lady Washington was among the ships. She is
no-longer painted black (from when she was loaned to Disney for the filming
of "Pirates of the Caribbean"). Her hull is now very colorful. The largest
ships were from Mexico (Acapulco-the Mexican Navy), and Russia. Wow! More
about the Tall Ships and a website are below the birds report.

We were at Brown's Point just before and during high tide. The weather was
warm, partly cloudy, and there was no wind. About two hundred people were
there to watch. Kids were playing in the water. I was surprised to see a
pair of dark brown MARBLED MURRELETS feeding very close to shore and near to
the people. The Murrelets continued to stay and feed in the area near shore
for quite awhile. Other birds seen:
Pelagic Cormorant - 1
Double-crested Cormorant - 1
MARBLED MURRELET - 2
Pigeon Guillemot - 2
Caspian Tern - 10
PURPLE MARTIN - 2 (these are the first Purple Martins I've seen at Brown's
Point. They flew in calling and landed in the tall trees. The Purple
Martins were both female, or a female and a juvenile. Are Purple Martin
juveniles fledged yet?

If you are in the downtown Tacoma area, be sure to look for
Peregrines near the 11th St bridge, and on ledges of buildings downtown.
The last I heard, the Tacoma Peregrines who raised 5 young!! last year, were
late brooding this year. But Peregrines are near there and should be around
the downtown area.

Even though the ships passed at quite a distance from us on Brown's Point,
we enjoyed the
show. The tall ships will stay in
Tacoma in the downtown area near the museums from now until July 4. They
will leave on the 5th. Cost is $10. per day to go onto the various ships,
but views should be great along shore and that's for free. If you haven't
been along the Tacoma downtown and waterfront out along Commencement Bay
lately, you ought to take the downtown freeway, hwy 705 and check it out.
The area is spectacular w/ museums downtown, and parks and restaurants out
along Ruston Way.
You can find out more about Tall Ships Tacoma at
http://www.tallshipstacoma.com Check out the pix of the visiting ships.
Wow! If you are coming from the north, and don't want to try to park
downtown, it looks
like a possible good spot to take a shuttle to the events is from Fife High
School.
The shuttle runs from the high school from 9am to 5:15pm and returns to the
high school 3:05pm until 9pm. (I would not try to take the shuttle from the
Emerald Queen Casino, as that parking lot really fills up.) To reach the
Fife High School, take exit 137 in
Fife, and go left across the freeway. Turn left on 20th St which parallels
hwy 99. (I couldn't make this section of the map print out from the website
on my computer.) Information about several shuttles
including one from the Tacoma Mall is on the website. (These other
shuttles/buses may run more often than the one sponsered by the city of
Fife.)
Remember, the Tall Ships event does not come to our area every year. It is
worth trying to see this in a very-spectacular setting. You might see some
birds, too.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA