Tweets,

Some King County bird highlights. Brien Meilleur and I visited the Montlake Fill and the Kent GRWRA and the Boeing Ponds this morning. We ran into several other birders including Matt Bartels.

A single MOURNING DOVE was at the Fill but no Semipalmated Sandpiper. We found one WESTERN KINGBIRD and a singing male LAZULI BUNTING along the fence near the entrance to the GRWRA south tower, off the paved bike path underneath the power lines. No sign at first of an egret, but another birder reported seeing it an hour before from the southwest tower, which is just about 100 yards from the south tower but requires about a two mile hike to get there, as the access is by a convoluted set of paths from one of the western gates off Russell Road. We spotted Matt up on the tower, apparently watching the egret as it fed in a tiny pond otherwise hidden from view. In any case, the GREAT EGRET obliged at last, flying around, perching in trees, etc. A bit later at the Boeing Ponds we spotted a second Great Egret as well as a GREATER YELLOWLEGS.

Meanwhile, Matt mentioned that he had seen a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT at the spot where it spent much of last summer, which confirmed what I thought I had heard before, calling from the island east of the south tower.

A nice sampling of more easterly birds for the county on a fine morning.

Gene Hunn.
18476 47th Pl. NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
enhunn323 at comcast.net