I birded a few spots in the Snoqualmie Valley today, to prepare for a
Seattle Audubon walk at Tolt-McDonald Park. I wasn't prepared for the
hot weather!

At Tolt-McDonald, there were WESTERN WOOD-PEWEES, HAMMOND'S AND
PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS, WARBLING VIREOS, ORANGE-CROWNED, YELLOW,
WILSON'S and BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS, COMMON YELLOWTHROATS, WESTERN
TANAGERS, and about a jillion BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, all singing away,
but still no WILLOW FLYCATCHERS. A BARRED OWL called in the woods and
when I called back, we had a "conversation" for about 10 minutes, until
I guess the owl figured out I was not actually a conspecific. The
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS were active at the colony in the exposed
bank.

At Sikes Lake, an AMERICAN BITTERN called once, and I had my most
notable sighting of the day, two BANK SWALLOWS, calling, flying around,
and landing on the wire above the road. They seemed to be behaving like
a mated pair.

I stopped at the Montlake Fill on my way home, where I never seem to see
all the exciting things found there by others, though the SNOW GOOSE was
still there and an OSPREY flew overhead. I did see a noisy flock of
about 60 CLIFF and a few BARN SWALLOWS land en masse at the edge of one
of the ponds to gather mud. All were fluttering their wings while on
the ground; Dennis Paulson says they do this to discourage unwelcome
copulation attempts.


Rachel Lawson
Seattle
RachelLawson at softhome.net