MIchael:

Friday evening, 7/8, while watching the cyclists at the Veledrome, I observed two Ospreys "tending" the nest you mentioned. One flew in with a fish while the other perched on a nearby lightpole. I didn't see the nestlings but they were pretty vocal throughout the evening.

Ann Marie Wood
Mountlake Terrace, WA
--
annmariewood at comcast.net
425-697-2961

-------------- Original message --------------

> Tweets - we are in the summer doldrums - breeding birds only, with really
> very little chance of anything else. It was also cloudy, for the most part,
> and quite breezy, which made for a quiet day. We did have some things worth
> noting, though:
>
> An OSPREY made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to grab a twig from trees
> in Snag Row. Then it spied a clump of dead grass that someone had pulled up
> and discarded at the edge of the Community Gardens. The Osprey came down
> and snatched that off the ground and carried it back towards the nest on the
> cell phone tower near the velodrome. I went by later, but didn't see any
> activity at the nest; I'm not sure of the status of the nesting there at the
> moment, except to say that we usually see an adult or two over there.
>
> Megan saw a bird that she couldn't quite place immediately. Turned out to
> be the first juvenile BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD that we've seen at Marymoor this
> summer. It was being fed by a male COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, who very diligently
> was bringing insects at a great rate. In the same elderberry we found a
> juvenile yellowthroat, and it was being fed by an adult female. While we
> watched, a LONG-TAILED WEASEL came scurrying up the elderberry - we were
> hoping it would get the cowbird, but it quickly retreated when all the birds
> flitted out of the way with much chattering.
>
> We did see one black-wing-tipped gull, and about 5 other gulls too distant
> to see. The one we saw fairly well looked to be probably a RING-BILLED
> GULL.
>
> We saw a downy-but-fledged BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK being fed by an adult male
> a bit below the weir. Contrary to the picture in the big Sibley, the very
> young BHGR appeared to have white wing-bars, not buffy. Later we saw what
> looked to us to be an adult female, as well as several more males.
>
> The CEDAR WAXWING nest that we found last week, just east of the boardwalk,
> had 3 quite large young on it. We also found another pair building a nest
> in the apple tree near the first bench along the trail south of the weir.
>
> We had one unaccompanied, full-sized, but clearly juvenile (no crest) HOODED
> MERGANSER at the weir.
>
> We found at least 3 female WOOD DUCKS with babies, as well as at least 1
> male in eclipse plumage.
>
> There were two GREEN HERON at the lake. We also found the PIED-BILLED GREBE
> nest there that MaryFrances Mathis had mentioned to me last week. One adult
> was sitting on the nest. The other adult came up and tapped the first on
> the side (asking to switch places?), but then sank back down. The first
> adult left the nest a minute later, showing us 3 eggs. We moved on, afraid
> we were scaring them off the eggs.
>
> We heard a few of the harder-to-see nesters, including RED-EYED VIREO,
> WARBLING VIREO (no activity at the nest; they may have fledged), and PURPLE
> FINCH.
>
> We saw a juvenile RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, a silent WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE, 2-3
> BROWN CREEPER, a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, and we had a good look at a
> SWAINSON'S THRUSH eating snowberries.
>
> Not bad for early July - 53 species. We're at 127 species for the year.
>
> == Michael Hobbs
> == Kirkland, WA
> == http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm
> == birdmarymoor at verizon.net
>
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