I spent the afternoon birding first Preston to Snoqualmie Falls (and return)
on Bicycle and then driving through Issaquah, May Valley and Newcastle.

Along the Preston - Snoqualmie trail (old railroad route) I had 3 separate
flocks of 30+ Pine Siskins - certainly different than last year. From the
migrant front I had a flyover of about 250 Robins just east of Preston Fall
City Road on the way toward Lake Alice. I had several flocks of Stellars
Jays in the same area. The best sighting on this portion of the trip was a
group of 6 Western Tanagers and a single Black Headed Grossbeak. Lots of
mixed BC and CB Chickadees, Bushtits, RB Nuthatch, along with Townsends and
OC Warblers. There was a very high flyover by a wedge of Canada Goose sp.
right at the Snoqualmie Falls overlook (not the one at the lodge, but one on
the other side of the river and further west that ends the bike trail). No
Peregrines at the falls. A slow but steady stream of raptor and accip sp.
passed overhead as I rested up for the return trip and 3 Common Ravens were
showing their remarkable aerobatics overhead.

In May Valley the Canada Goose numbers have greatly increased over the past
couple of weeks. There were small flocks in several of the wet spots
including some smaller geese that were just too far to get a positive ID on.
There was a huge flock of thrushes at the east end of the valley with
Robins making up 95%+ of the 2000 or more birds but also easily identifiable
Varied, Hermit, and Swainsons (which all surprised me). There were 4
juvenile Western Sandpipers in a field just off of the intersection of May
Valley Road and Hiway 900 - again very surprising. The best bird of the day
was a single Gray Jay that flew across May Valley Road and perched on top of
a barn about 1/2 mile west of the intersection with Hiway 900. Over the
years I've seen a number of Gray Jays in the "Issaquah Alps" but certainly
not this early and not at this location. At home in Newcastle the Robin
flocks continued with about 300 coming in to roost on the west end of the
golf course which has also recently become host to (yuck) 500+ starlings
that give spectacular flight shows near dusk every night. The last of the
swallows have disappeared from the neighborhood and it has been a couple of
weeks since I've heard Killdeer overhead. I had only 47 species in 6 hours
of birding today, but enjoyed being out and about.

The temperature this morning dipped to a nippy 39 degrees in Newcastle but
climbed spectacularly to 78 this afternoon - what a great time of year.

Good Birding



Rob Conway
Newcastle and Preston, WA

robin_birder at hotmail.com