Hi Tweets:
Yesterday morning I went down to Green River Natural Resources Area (GRNRA), known to
birders as Kent Ponds. It was a beautiful sunny morning, about 70 degrees. On the
south side of GRNRA I accessed the powerline trail from 54th Ave near S 226th, and
walked east on that bike trail to the South Tower for viewing. There is a Northern
Harrier (NOHA) family down there about 200 feet from the tower. One of the reported
3 juvenile NOHA's soon perched up on some brambles to the west of the viewing tower.
It sat there for quite awhile. After a bit, it flew north in the meadow, tried to
land in a tree but teetered a lot, and then flew south and landed in a weeping willow
that is close to the tower, and to the bike (powerline) trail. The female NOHA was
not in the area. After awhile, the juv started making begging sounds (it sounds like
seeuw, seeuw), and the female NOHA flew in from the north. The young bird flew up
under the female right over the brambles, and there must have been a prey exchange,
although it was so quick I missed it. The juv flew down to a little patch of woods
that is right next to the trail entrance to the South Tower, where there is a weeping
willow, some little cedars, etc. The juv flew down into grass in front of the
weeping willow and remained there.
As I was watching for any NOHA action, two Black-headed Grosbeaks and two Warbling
Vireos (at least one was a juvenile vireo) flew into the bush-tree right next to the
tower. We don't usually see these species in that area. These may be migrants. I
heard a Virginia Rail call, and thought I may have heard the Yel-b Chat call. The
last time we saw and heard the chat was on July 22, during our monthly GRNRA census.
Also, during that census, we observed the Red-shouldered Hawk, first over to the east
on the Osprey platform, and then on a snag on the island, across the lagoon from the
S. Tower. But I couldn't find the RSHA yesterday. There are lots of Cedar Waxwings,
Common Yellowthroats, Marsh Wrens, and Am. Goldfinches in the area. I've been trying
to find late Lazuli Buntings, but was unsuccessful. My last sighting of one of them
(probably a young male) was down there on July 15, in the SW corner of GRNRA by the
nursery.
As I was leaving the area at about 9:30am, the juv NOHA flew up into the the top of
the little weeping willow next to the trail and the open gate by the south tower.
There were Barn Swallows (lots), and a few Cliff and one or two Tree Swallows in the
area.
I then drove south on 54th to 228th St, and turned west. This connects to a new
bridge over the Green River, and travels about 1 mile from the river up to Military
Rd at the top of the ridge, where the new road is called S 230th or something like
that. At the top at the light, I turned right (north) on Military, and went two
blocks to 226th, and turned right (east) down to Grandview Park. This is a off-leash
dog-walking area, and the birding was quite good there.
At Grandview Park, I had all the expected species, maybe 20 species. Most of the
action was up by the parking area, which is at the top of a bluff. There is some 8
inch grass there, some bush-trees on one side, and big maples, cottonwoods, etc to
the west. Two West. Wood-Pewees were flying and singing in the sunshine. I walked
the loop down to the field which was fairly quiet except for Northern Rough-winged
Swallows and many Barn Swallows, many goldfinches, waxwings, and some BC Chickadees.
As I got to the top of the hill at the parking lot by the big cottonwoods I saw a
small group of migrants working the willows and blackberries that are in front of the
cottonwoods. There were 2 Warbling Vireos, one bright Or-crowned Warbler, one female
Black-throated Gray Warbler, and I heard a Hutton's Vireo. It was 11am. I only saw
them for about 5 minutes, and then they were gone.
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines, WA
linusq at att.net