the weather goofs took a perfectly-good sunday and worried it into a "do
everything saturday", which was so wrong as to be unbelievable... and to
think: one can acquire a paper degree from a prestigious university in the
"science" of predicting weather patterns...

anywho... i met a new friend (hi, sandy!) and an old friend (howdy,
ginger!) at the union bay natural area yesterday morning and, while the
weather and lighting sucked, it turned out to be a pretty good day for
birding... we reacquainted ourselves with the greater white-fronted geese,
and a dozen or so northern shovelers, most of whom were male... one belted
kingfisher was heard, one unknown hummer buzzed us, and a few bald eagle
adults soared on pathetic thermals... just northeast of the main pond, a
tree swallow posed on a nest box with a feather in its beak about 75% its
size for several minutes (photos available)... in the same area, numerous
singing common yellowthroats were making photo life difficult by being on
"the other side" of shrubbery, and one almost had me posting a photo of
shrubs where said COYE had been not a fraction of a second before, just
because... instead, the posted photo displays about 30% of the bird deep in
a willow thicket because that was the best they were willing to give up
yesterday... i think they must herald from a group of individuals who
believe their soul will be sucked into the camera if a photo is taken :)

also seen was the ring-necked pheasant (that makes three years in a row now
that i know of), a one-legged killdeer, several very dull (in colour)
yellow-rumped warblers, and a murder of american crows in the rehab area to
the northeast, including one with a pair of bands on his right leg (whitish
over dull blue-green); s/he was gathering nesting materials by the
beakful...

after a wonderful lunch, it was time for juanita bay park, where the tree
swallows and red-winged blackbirds were displaying high hormone levels...
it was nice to see a few american goldfinch males in breeding plumage as
well...

this morning, the weather goofs screwed up again (they really get paid for
this?), so i made for marymoor park where the raptors were in bloom
revelling in the copious sunstreams... there appeared thermals everywhere,
and an adult bald eagle or red-tail hawk to occupy each... grace and ollie
oliver pointed out one of the new eagle nests in the south end of the park,
and while we talked, birds blew in and out, like a brewer's blackbird (who
must have been lost seeking out the miles-distant costco car park), savannah
sparrows, and osprey, in addition to the other large raptors...

once down the trail from compost to river, the one savannah i managed to get
a half-decent photo of was bright with bronze eyebrow stripes and solid
white whisker stripes... marsh wrens were singing loudly everywhere, and a
nest was found not far from the "peat moss/bogs" sign on the boardwalk...
in the same spot, i heard my first virginia rail of the year. three hundred
metres north, an american robin showed me her nest as she brought in moss
and other soft things to pad said nest...

water levels are once again high at juanita bay, and still high at marymoor;
the loop trail is still washed out along the river for about 30 metres or
so, and much of the boardwalk is barely above waterlevels itself...

photos are available in the Photos of the Month gallery on my website...
enjoy!

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
george davis creek, north fork


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