Yesterday, I spent most of the day at Discovery Park, which was jumping
with birds.

The most interesting thing I saw was an interaction between a BARRED OWL
and a PILEATED WOODPECKER. The woodpecker pair was calling back and
forth down in the Ravine, and the male landed on the trunk of a large
maple. Then a Barred Owl landed in the same tree only about 3 or 4 feet
away. The woodpecker flew to a nearby tree, and then flew back and
forth in agitation, calling loudly the entire time, finally returning to
the original tree. The owl seemed unimpressed, keeping its eyes on me.
After a few minutes, the woodpecker flew off, followed soon after by the
owl. I wonder if the owl was too close to the woodpeckers' nest.

I walked around the Loop Trail, with several detours, and saw and heard
the expected residents, plus warblers, vireos, and other Spring
arrivals, including the ones listed below. There were still a few
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS around, but I didn't hear or see a single
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. An AMERICAN ROBIN already was feeding a fledgling
outside the nest.

Vaux's Swift
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Hammond's Flycatcher
Cassin's Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Hutton's Vireo
Orange-crowned Warbler
(Audubon's) Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Brown-headed Cowbird

By the time I made it down to the beach, the tide was in. There were no
shorebirds or BRANT present. There were few birds on the water, but I
did see a pair of MARBLED MURRELETS. There was a nice flock of BARN,
TREE, VIOLET-GREEN, AND NORTHERN ROUGHT-WINGED SWALLOWS over the pond,
and a noisy flock of 12 STELLER'S JAYS en route somewhere via the roof
of the lighthouse.

Add to that 2 SWAINSON'S THRUSHES, a HERMIT THRUSH, an OLIVE-SIDED
FLYCATCHER, a YELLOW WARBLER, and a LINCOLN'S SPARROW seen at the park
on 5/1 and a WESTERN TANAGER heard and a sub-adult PEREGRINE FALCON seen
during the park census on May 6 (there were still a couple of
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS around that day), and the 2 HAIRY WOODPECKERS we
saw during an SAS field trip on 5/9, and Discovery Park has been the
place to be in the last week or so!

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
RachelLawson at softhome.net