Tweeters,



Tonight, during a brief but very nice visit to the Montlake Fill, I saw two
Yellow-headed Blackbirds. One was an adult male, and one was either an
adult female or young bird. Both were flying over ? the adult male dropped
in near the west pond, and the female/second-year bird was along the shore
of Union Bay. It seems like there have been an unusually high number of
this species at the Fill this spring. I?m wondering if these are numbers of
birds moving through, with high turnover, or if there is a small population
that is sticking around the site. I?ve not seen any of these birds singing
or acting at all territorial. I plan to spend some time there later this
summer to see if they?re sticking around to breed.



Yesterday morning, I woke up at 4:00 to the calls of swifts out my bedroom
window. From the sound of the calls, they seemed fairly close to the
ground, and were circling over the neighborhood. They were only giving low
single and double-note calls, not twittering. I don?t have enough
experience with these calls to know if these were Black or Vaux?s Swifts,
and recordings haven?t been much help. After a few minutes, they gradually
moved off. I don?t think that swifts often feed at night, so I?m curious
what these birds were doing out at 4 in the morning. There may have been a
glint of dawn in the east, but it was almost completely dark. Perhaps
migrants that got drawn in by the lights? Or roosting birds that were
roused early? I?d be interested in other people?s thoughts on this.



Good birding,

Matt Dufort

Seattle, WA


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