11:18 start - water level low and dropping with all mudflats visible
(12:45 low tide - (-)2.2ft; 20:31 high tide - 12.1 ft -- 14ft
differential today!)
12:02 end

Tweeters,
Low water, balmy north breeze, and not nearly (seemingly) as hot as
yesterday's record-breaker at Turning Basin #3. Sad news today in the
Seattle Times: John Beal, a great booster of Hamm Creek and the lower
Duwamish River in general, has passed on
(http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003087996_bealobit27m.
html). Many of you knew John from his advocacy -- I knew him mainly from
his work and from occasionally talking with him across the river from
the Boeing site where I work at Hamm Creek. Last year, we led a group of
architects on a tour of Hamm Creek. John will be missed.

Two Purple Martins were preening atop a gantry crane support here at the
Boeing facility. A bit later, I noted a martin preening on a piling
below me on the east bank of the river. I checked the gantry, and sure
enough, the two martins were still there. The piling martin started
"burbling," and next thing you know, yet another Purple Martin flew in.
Soon, all four were flying in the area, with two of the birds peeling
off to go to the hole-in-the-wall site in the building. (Next year, I'm
going to work with the facilities and security folks here to get some
gourds up.)

A Red-tailed Hawk, circling very high overhead, was harrassed for almost
two minutes by five mobster American Crows.

The male of the Oxbow Ospreys was walking on the west-bank mudflat south
of the new restoration area, then rose, dove, and took a fish to the
nest atop the light standard. The female took the fish and picked off
small pieces to feed the chick(s). The Hamm Creek male brought a fish to
the west-bank power tower and proceeded to eat. The female called
repeatedly from the nest (I couldn't see the chicks today).

Birds seen during this scan:
Canada Goose (2)
Double-crested Cormorant (2; the first for some time)
Great Blue Heron (2)
Osprey (4)
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer (2)
Glaucous-winged Gull (2)
Rock Pigeon (16)
American Crow (18; most were feeding on the mudflats)
Purple Martin (4)
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow (several)
Barn Swallow (2)
Bewick's Wren
European Starling (12)
Song Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch (2)

19 spp today; 45 YTD

May all your birds be identified,

Denis DeSilvis
Seattle, WA
mailto:denis.j.desilvis at boeing.com