13:42 start - water level mid and dropping (9:22 HT - 8.0ft; 16:48 LT -
0.8ft)
14:17 end

Tweeters,
Warm, light north breeze, outgoing tide with most mudflats exposed, and
just delightful at Turning Basin #3. The Oxbow Ospreys got some help
with their nest problems yesterday from Ed Schulz and friends, and The
Boeing Company. They attached a box to the top of the light standard in
the parking lot, and rearranged the nesting material that had been
there, plus adding some stuff. According to Ed, "The birds landed in the
new box before we got the lift bucket down to the ground." Now we just
have to sit back and wait to see how they fare.

Lots of Least and a few Western Sandpipers feeding on the restoration
peninsula. Heard the 3-note call of a Greater Yellowlegs, and a friend
of mine, who was on a smoke break, came running over to tell me he saw
three birds below him that he'd never seen before. He very accurately
described the GRYEs, which, in a fortuitous happenstance, rose up,
calling, and headed directly north over one of the nearby buildings.

Bird of the Day: American Pipit. I've never seen one on the river, and
as I was scoping the sandpipers feeding on the south mudflat, I saw a
bird bobbing along as it fed. It disappeared into a "crease" in the mud,
and I was supposing it was a Spotted Sandpiper, but it just didn't leap
out that that was the bird. It finally reappeared, and I confirmed the
tail length, slimmness, overall look, and appearance in good light:
American Pipit.

Birds seen during this scan:

Canada Goose (5)
Bufflehead (4)
Double-crested Cormorant (18)
Great Blue Heron (2)
Osprey (3)
Greater Yellowlegs (3)
Western Sandpiper (5)
Least Sandpiper (45)
Glaucous-winged Gull (6)
Rock Pigeon (4; I didn't take time to count more)
American Crow (5)
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow (several)
American Pipit
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
House Sparrow (2)

18 spp seen today; 36 spp YTD

May all your birds be identified,

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