Tweets,

Bluebirds are hard to come by in King Co., so the pair of Western Bluebirds I observed today near Stillwater just north of Carnation in the Snoqualmie River Valley were a treat. They were hanging out together on a half-dead alder which appears to offer a nesting opportunity.

This is very near the Bank Swallow colony we [re-]discovered here last summer. There are two parking areas off SR 203 (requiring one of those yellow tags), the northern one opposite Fay Rd. and the other just north of the Stillwater Store. One can also park at a pullout by a gate between the two lots. This gate is immediately opposite a track that heads west from the Snoqualmie River Trail towards the Snoqualmie River (at this point about 1/2 miles away). From the parking lots one needs to walk north or south, as the case might be, about 1/4 mile to this track. The track passes a pond on the right (Ring-necked Ducks, Virginia Rails), then angles left, south, over a dike, then west again along a slough, jogging south across the slough about half-way to the river, then bending north as you approach the tall cottonwoods of the flood plain. At this point or a bit beyond, look back across a field to the east and you will see two alder snags. That's where the bluebirds were, competing for space with Tree Swallows. Continue north by northwest to the bank at the river for Northern Rough-winged Swallows and, in a week or two perhaps, Bank Swallows.

I also observed a migrating flock of Cliff Swallows just south of Stillwater. It has been a fine, sunny, almost warm day!

Gene Hunn
18476 47th Pl. NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
enhunn323 at comcast.net