there is a roost in the mercer slough nature area; in fact, there may be
more than one... my (tomorrow) former apartment on 118th SE faces west into
the slough, and the birds are starting their descent within a half-mile of
that spot into the trees...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of ginger
holser
Sent: Tuesday, 2006 October 31 22:02
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Crow night roost


I need a picture to accompany an article and was wondering if anyone could
point me to the location of a crow night roost in the Everett, Seattle or
eastside areas.

Thanks in advance,

Ginger Holser
gholser at yahoo.com


tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu wrote:
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Today's Topics:

1. Tundra Swans are back at Ridgefield NWR (Roger Windemuth)
2. Golden Eagle, Whidbey Island (Steve Ellis)
3. Ridgefield NWR: improvement suggestions due Nov 3rd (bill clemons)
4. Seen on Protection Cruise October (Alice King)
5. Probable Curlew Sandpiper at Fill (kitd)
6. RE: mcnary dam floodgates closed (Bill and Nancy LaFramboise)
7. Re: mcnary dam floodgates closed (Dennis Rockwell)
8. BirdNote 2006 Calendars have arrived! (Adam Sedgley)
9. BirdNote 2007 Calendars have arrived! (Adam Sedgley)
10. more on the pigeon-eating pelicans (carenp)
11. Superb Post-Arctic Front Birding! (Gina Sheridan)
12. re: BirdNote Calendar (Dianna Moore)
13. Monday at Nisqually: O-c Warbler etc (phicks at accessgrace.org)
14. Swan (BobnBernie)
15. Swan (BobnBernie)
16. Swan (BobnBernie)
17. Looking for ABA Birder's Field Notebook Manual (RONALD LEAMON)
18. Swans over Renton (BobnBernie)
19. Swans over North Seattle (ZINGIE at aol.com)
20. Magnolia Fun (Whitney H)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:50:47 -0800
From: "Roger Windemuth"
Subject: [Tweeters] Tundra Swans are back at Ridgefield NWR
To: "Tweeters at U. Washington. Edu"
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


The Tundra Swans have returned to Ridgefield. Nine of the swans were
seen
today among the thousands of Dusky and Cackling Canada Geese that have
been
there for the last two weeks. A lone Greater White-fronted Goose was
also
seen among the other geese. Also, the two White-tailed Kite that have
been
at the refuge for the last two months are still there.

Roger Windemuth
roger at windemuths.com
LumiscapePhotography.com




------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:50:55 -0800
From: Steve Ellis
Subject: [Tweeters] Golden Eagle, Whidbey Island
To: Tweeters
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

There was an adult Golden Eagle standing in a field along Terry Road in
Coupeville this morning. A raven and then a couple of crows found it and
harassed it until it flew over the fields in a southerly direction (
towards
Crockett?s Lake). It?s only the 2nd Golden I?ve observed on the island
in 20
years, a true once a decade bird.
Steve Ellis
Coupeville, Wa
sellis at coup.wednet.edu
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Message: 3
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:02:29 -0800 (PST)
From: bill clemons
Subject: [Tweeters] Ridgefield NWR: improvement suggestions due Nov
3rd
To: Tweeters
Message-ID: <20061030220230.13635.qmail at web55113.mail.re4.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Ridgefield NWR: improvement suggestions due Nov 3rd

This your last notice to get any comments to the
administrative folks at Ridgefield NWR.

Comments are due by Nov. 3rd which is this coming
Friday.

On Oct 6th I posted instructions on how to comment.

In that same post, I submitted my own petition and
invited anybody to sign on with me.


I am reposting it again below
Thanks

bill clemons
SW of Portland in Mtn Park
willclemons AT yahoo.com

*************************************
October 6, 2006
Ridgefield NWR Users: Very Important Message

If you like to bird at Ridgefield NWR or know folks
who like to bird there you now have what may be your
best opportunity to offer your suggestions for
improvements at Ridgefield.

Comments and suggestions for improvements, changes,
etc must be received at Ridgefield NWR by November 3,
2006.

At a 9-20-06 meeting regarding their long range plan,
Refuge Staff solicited comments from interested users
of Ridgefield.

Most birders love using NWRs, respect the jobs that
their staffs do and have an understanding that money
is usually tight, staff are frequently overworked, and
many refuges are understaffed. I am however also of
the opinion that the refuges I have visited, including
Ridgefield, limit public access more than is
necessary.

NOW is the time to comment. Please, either ?sign on?
to my petition comments, or speak up and comment on
your own, while this plan is being put together rather
than after it has been finalized.

If you are not inclined to comment on your own, but
wish to ?sign on? to the comments I?m making, and
hereby soliciting, and will be collecting and emailing
or hand delivering by the November 3, 2006 deadline,
please email me off line with your suggestions.

I also suggest posting your ideas or suggestions to
Tweeters, OBOL, or both, in order to keep this
important suggestion collection process going until
the end of October.

Please also tell me if I may add your name to the
bottom of the comments form. I believe that the more
names we can add (petition style), the better our
comments may be received. As of this post, I have
permission to add only about half a dozen names to my
comments.

If you have friends who enjoy Ridgefield, but do not
read Tweeters or OBOL, please discuss this with them
and ask their permission for me to add their names to
my petition comments.

A few annual numbers obtained at the September 20,
2006 meeting:
Estimated users of the River ?S? Unit drive loop =
65,200
Estimated users of the Kiwa Trail = 6,200
Estimated hunters = 2,100
Estimated visits by wildlife photographers = 4,800

COMMENTS COLLECTED SO FAR FOR SUBMISSION TO RNWR:

1.) MORE TURNOUTS throughout the entire River ?S?
Unit, especially in wooded areas. This could be (and
should be) accomplished without removal of any trees.

2.) KIWA TRAIL ACCESS ON SUNDAYS could easily be
allowed between October 1 and April 30. Hunt days
are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This leaves
Sunday as a potential Kiwa Trail use day while still
preserving a waterfowl rest day between hunt days.

3.) ROTH UNIT FOOT ACCESS TO THE WOODLANDS could be
allowed on the same schedule as Kiwa Trail access
including point #2 above.

4.) MORE OUT-OF-CAR AREAS could be designated between
October 1 and April 30 such that people observing
could more easily use photography telephoto lenses and
spotting scopes from various vantage points around the
River S Unit. These areas could be easily marked such
that all parties would find it easy to obey the rules.


5.) IMPROVE OBSERVATION BLIND for observation,
telephoto lens photography, spotting scopes and
binoculars by removing the horizontal wooden ?bars? in
the windows. Either remove them altogether, or remove
every other vertical one. This replacement blind,
while well intended, is lacking in at least this
regard creating a diminished experience for short
observers, photographic telephoto lenses and spotting
scopes.

A second improvement at this blind would involve minor
tree pruning off to the left side in order to open up
the view to that side. There appears to be reduced
visibility to the left relative to the previous blind.

A third improvement for observation here would be to
modify Rest Lake such that some added open water is
closer to the blind. Perhaps one or more modest
channels with some small open water areas would allow
birds to be closer to the blind and be observed by
more people.

6.) FOOT ACCESS ALONG DIKES AND SERVICE ROADS could
easily be allowed in open season and on Sundays during
hunting season. If people can not walk on all the
dikes and service roads, then the more access that can
be added, the better. Obvious minimal access in this
regard would be to allow dike access for some distance
N and S from the Refuge entrance near the vehicle
bridge that goes from the railroad track area and
crosses Lake River. If the dike extends all the way
around the River ?S? Unit along Lake River and along
Bachelor Slough, access to all of it would be
desirable.

7.) MANAGE SOME OBSERVABLE AREA(S) FOR SHORE BIRDS by
consulting knowledgeable birders and other folks and
taking specific steps to increase this type of
habitat.

8.) OBSERVATION PLATFORM STRUCTURES could be added.
These would not be blinds. Any new structure should
at least gain a one-story increase (if not more) in
height over the ground level to provide good vantage
for vista observation, photography and bird watching.
There are many functional examples in Washington and
Oregon.

Suggested locations should be solicited, but several
sites seem obvious:

a) Near the southeasterly corner of Rest Lake where
the road makes an almost 90 degree turn northerly and
begins paralleling the easterly side of the lake.

b) In the vicinity of the threesome of trees on the
easterly side of Rest Lake. This site is approximately
at the midpoint of the lake from a N-S standpoint.

c) Just N of the existing blind and more toward the
edge of Rest Lake, perhaps adjacent to the tree line
or in the gap between the northernmost tree and the
rest of that woodland. This could be accomplished
without tree removal and would allow this observation
platform to avoid being out in the open.

9.) ADDITIONAL TOILET(S) should be added. At a
minimum, one at the southeasterly corner of Rest Lake
where the road makes an almost 90 degree turn
northerly and begins paralleling the easterly side of
the lake. It is one thing for males to water bushes,
but a significant number of women prefer facilities
other than bushes. Currently, once people are past
the blind and below the Kiwa entrance area, they must
stop what they are doing and drive all the way to the
end/entrance, wasting gasoline and time.

10.) FEE-FREE PARKING ZONE near the entrance for
folks who arrive separately, park one of their cars
and then ride around together. Fees begin October 16,
2006 and will be $3/day or $15/year. A National Parks
Pass + Golden Eagle ($65/yr) or NP Golden Age Passport
(age 62+ $10 one time charge) will get you in free,
though I understand you may still need to complete an
entrance form logging the ID number from your card.

11.) ACCESS TO BACHELOR ISLAND could be allowed in
part, at some time(s) during the year. It is
difficult to understand why this habitat needs to be
off limits twelve months of the year. Goose quiet
zones are understandable, as are
reasonable sized off limit buffers around the Heron &
Egret colony. The Heron colony across from Vancouver
Lake Park is an example of a viewable colony.

12.) A LOCATION TO BUY ANNUAL PASSES ON WEEKENDS is
necessary as many visitors who work weekdays have no
way to purchase the annual $15 pass and are stuck
paying the $3 daily fee.

More information can be found at:
http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/RNWRHome.htm

The Comment Form can be downloaded at:
http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/Images/RNWRCommentForm.pdf

Comments can be made by:

a) Faxing to (360) 887-4109,

b) Mailing to Project Leader, Ridgefield NWR, PO Box
457, Ridgefield, WA 98642

c) Emailing to FW1PlanningComments at fws.gov (please
put Ridgefield NWR CCP in the subject line)

OR

d) Emailing me and I will add them to my petition
comments

bill clemons
SW of Portland in Mtn Park
willclemons AT yahoo.com




________________________________________________________________________
____________
Cheap Talk? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates
(http://voice.yahoo.com)



------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:40:33 -0800
From: "Alice King"
Subject: [Tweeters] Seen on Protection Cruise October
To:
Message-ID: <88EDE3C45002EB46B690468ECC5C917506C697 at SERVER1.ptmsc.lan>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Common Loon
Pacific Loon
Red throated loon
Red Necked Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Brandt's Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
White-winged Scoter
Surf Scoter
Harlequin Duck
Red Breasted Merganser
Black bellied Plover
Black Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Herman's Gull
Bonaparte Gull
Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Common Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Marbled Murrelet
Rhinoceros Auklet
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier

Alice King
Administrative Assistant
Port Townsend Marine Science Center
532 Battery Way
Port Townsend, WA 98368
360 385-5582 ext 104; 1-800-566-3932; Fax: 360-385-7248
website: www.ptmsc.org

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Message: 5
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:04:29 -0800
From: "kitd"
Subject: [Tweeters] Probable Curlew Sandpiper at Fill
To:
Message-ID: <004d01c6fc77$c2d562f0$6501a8c0 at KIT>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Tweeters,
This morning at around 10:30, I found what I believe to be a CURLEW
SANDPIPER feeding at the edge of the Montlake Fill's main pond. At the
time I met another birder, named Mike (Sorry I forgot your last name!),
and we agreed that it was probably a Dunlin. But upon consulting Sibley,
and Dennis Paulson's "Shorebirds of North America", I've decided that
the bird's field marks are those of an adult Curlew Sandpiper. The
upper-
parts were distinctly gray with little or no brown tinge, neither was
there
any brown on the breast, which was almost as pale as the very white
belly. Also there was a noticeable white supercilium. The bill was long
and droopy like a Dunlin's. I did not see it fly.
I note that Sibley writes that Curlew Sandpipers "prefer freshwater
pools"
(although Paulson does not make this distinction).
Also of note at this same pond was a group of at least ten(!) Hooded
Mergansers, seven of which were adult males, and a couple of Cackling
Geese in a larger group of Canada Geese.

Kit Dieffenbach
Seattle
kitd at comcast.net
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Message: 6
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:13:31 -0800
From: "Bill and Nancy LaFramboise"
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] mcnary dam floodgates closed
To: "'Tweeters'"
Message-ID: <007701c6fc79$04971390$4001a8c0 at Desktop>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Brad (& info for Tweeters),

I'm a bit confused - are you talking about waterfowl at McNary Dam or
McNary
NWR? You mention both. Is "Bill" at the refuge or the dam? What mudflats
are closed? I don't think of McNary Dam itself as hosting huge numbers
of
waterfowl. They are certainly in larger numbers upstream of the dam in
coves and ponds as far away as McNary NWR and Richland. McNary NWR (in
Burbank) is quite a bit upstream of McNary Dam.

Even nesting waterfowl were scarce at McNary NWR this summer with no
clear
reason why. Though most of the water on the refuge is there because of
McNary Dam, I would assume that the ponds at the refuge have their own
water
management gates so their levels would not be immediately controlled by
the
dam. Other parts of the refuge are controlled by the dam. As Mike
mentioned, the water levels at the Walla Walla Delta (part of McNary
NWR)
were kept high this fall. This was also true at the Yakima River Delta
but
that has not kept the waterfowl from showing up. I would assume that
much
like the Yakima River Delta in Richland (not far from the refuge) the
waterfowl will arrive at the refuge shortly.

The Yakima River Delta is starting to host quite a good variety
waterfowl
with many of the divers just showing up. Today I saw my first of the
season
Common Goldeneyes and Hooded Mergansers there. If one wants to see
American
Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall,
Bufflehead, etc, there's no shortage.

Ruddy Ducks have passed through with probably a few still around whereas
a
few weeks ago there were over 75. I have only seen a few Canvasbacks (4)
and Redhead (maybe up to 6) at the Yakima River Delta so far. These are
usually a good portion of the waterfowl at McNary NWR and are present
there
in higher numbers than at the Yakima Delta..

There was also a huge number (for here) of Bonaparte's Gulls at the
Yakima
Delta today with at least 75 present.

Today there was quite a bit of mud at the Yakima River Delta (so did
they
open the floodgates?). Shorebirds were in fairly short supply as it is
late
in the season with small numbers of Long-billed Dowitchers, Dunlin,
Killdeer, and Greater Yellowlegs. Just a few days ago, even with the
water
high, there were 40-50 Least Sandpipers still around. The presence of at
least 1 (maybe 2) Peregrine Falcons and a Bald Eagle make viewing fun as
many of the birds take to the air when the raptors are flying.

PS - We recently got a note from the biologist at McNary with the
results of
counts of Greater White-fronted Geese that they do at the refuge in
September - 1061 there on September 20 and 622 there on September 27.


Nancy
Bill and Nancy LaFramboise
Richland WA

_____

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Brad
Yoneoka
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 10:04 AM
To: tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] mcnary dam floodgates closed

i talked to the mcnary dam operator, bill, friday, and was told that the
floodgates are closed. this means the mudflats are closed, no access to
food, so few waterfowl stopping to eat. according to my falcon guide "wa
nature weekends" by sunny walter and janet o'mara, p.171, there usually
are
huge nos. of wintering waterfowl who arrive at the end of october at
mcnary
natural wildlife refuge,. but bill said he had not seen them yet [?].
for
further info, call 509-547-4942.

brad yoneoka
Seattle, WA
mailto:yoneoka01 at msn.com
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Message: 7
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:14:06 -0800
From: "Dennis Rockwell"
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] mcnary dam floodgates closed
To: "Bill and Nancy LaFramboise" , "'Tweeters'"

Message-ID: <006601c6fc81$7c06f7d0$f64aff04 at YOUR524031EC7D>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Nancy and Tweeters,

It's my understanding that the water level in the Columbia River at the
mouth of the Snake River (opposite Two Rivers County Park) is influenced
primarily by McNary dam and secondarily by Ice Harbor dam. However that
influence does not reach the ten miles upstream from the mouth of the Snake
to the mouth of the Yakima. The water level on the Yakima delta is
controlled primarily by Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams and secondarily by
the flow in the Yakima itself.

And, yes, the waterfowl numbers in the lagoons and wetlands and on the
Columbia River at Two Rivers County Park are also up bigtime as of this
weekend past. Lots of American Coots feeding on milfoil and being
kleptoparasitized by the American Wigeons and Gadwalls.

Also the first Merlin of the season here this morning trying to catch a
Black-billed Magpie. Within a few seconds the Magpie's family showed up and
drove the Merlin off.

Dennis Rockwell
Kennewick, WA
dennrockwell at surfbest.net
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill and Nancy LaFramboise
To: 'Tweeters'

=== message truncated ===




Ginger Holser
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