Subject: [Tweeters] Tukwila to Kent and Ospreys
Date: Jul 24 10:38:16 2006
From: Lynn Schulz - linusq at worldnet.att.net


Hi Tweets:
A small group of us did the GRNRA (Kent Ponds) Census yesterday morning,
Sun, July 24 from 7:20-10:30am. It was quite warm, and the birding was
slow. We didn't even
see an Osprey at Kent Ponds like Linda Phillips saw the day before. We did
see 3
Green Herons fly, and there were two sightings of an American Bittern.
Several Wood Ducks were seen, and 6 juv Wood Ducks were on the water. There
were numerous Common Yellowthroats. I don't know the count of those but
maybe at least 80 of them. Lots of young C Yellowthroats were chasing each
other in the bushes. Swallow counts were down. We saw Cliff, Barn, and VG
but no Tree Swallows. We dipped on Lazuli Bunting, which we had been seeing
and hearing on the Powerline Trail. We also dipped on the Yel-breasted
Chat. The only raptors were 2 Red-tailed Hawks, and one Cooper's Hawks. We
only counted 40 species total.
After a count lunch at Wendy's (we needed the large-size lemonade/ice tea
combinations or sodas on ice), we felt cooled down enought to check out the
local OSPREY nests. We observed 3 nests. One is on a cell tower, one is on
a tall light pole, and I can't remember what supports the very-tall 3rd nest
down off
of W Valley near old Longacres. All of the nests are east of W Valley hwy,
and range from Tukwila to North Kent. All of these had adult birds and
large nestlings on and near the nest. Two of the nests had adults and one
juvenile. One of the nests had two juveniles. The youngest juv had
beautiful crisp white feather-edging on its back. All the juveniles had
beautiful golden napes, and some white feather-edging. At one nest, the
male flew in to the nest w/ prey. The female fed the 2 juvs, and then
started calling at the male who perched just out of reach. The call was
quite loud and insistent, a repetitive whey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! It
looked like she was scolding the male. But he didn't fly again.
Roger Orness said it looks like the juveniles will be ready to fledge pretty
soon.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA
linusq at att.net