Subject: [Tweeters] West Seattle birds
Date: Dec 8 11:50:24 2007
From: Louise Rutter - louise.rutter at eelpi.gotdns.org


Many thanks to the people who recommended Duwamish Head as a nice place for
close-up surfbirds - I finally got out that way yesterday afternoon, and
found a half and half flock of black turnstones and surfbirds on the rocks
looking north, about fifty birds in total. It was icy cold - I'd
deliberately picked a day with only light winds, but these things are
relative when you're standing on a point looking into it! Most of my
photographic subjects were huddled, eyeless, beakless, one-legged blobs of
surfbird, but every now and then one would take out a bill to preen and show
me the full set of field marks from just feet away. Much preferred to
scoping Westport jetty!



Out on the water, there were a few horned and red-necked grebe, including
one gorgeous red-necked closer to breeding plumage than not. Surf scoters
were the only ducks visible off the Head, but further south along the
section of Alki Beach known as Constellation Park, the waters (and
thankfully the pavements!) were more sheltered - here there were
red-breasted mergansers, 12 Harlequin ducks, 8 Barrow's goldeneye and a
single female common goldeneye, along with fair numbers of bufflehead and a
common loon. A flock of around thirty sanderling was squeezed into the two
feet of beach between sea wall and sea at high tide. An immature bald eagle
drifted in lazy circles above the houses - always an incongruous setting for
these huge raptors!



I moved on down to Lincoln Park, hoping for owls. A circuit in daylight
revealed most of the owl wash trees to be at the north end, north of the
baseball diamond, but I couldn't spot any roosting. As dusk descended, two
adult bald eagles flew in shrieking constantly, and landed at the tip of a
pine right above the bluff path.



Based on Stewart's Seward Park reports from a couple of weeks ago, and the
fact that it's getting ever-darker, I was hoping for owl movement shortly
after five, and calling by around 5.30pm. I'd planned to stay until at least
6, but I'm afraid by 5.45 the sheer boredom of it had got to me, and I
bailed, owl-less. The minutes creep by so very slowly when the bird-watching
involves staring at nothing! I suspect owling should be a group sport to
make the time pass easier....



Louise Rutter

Kirkland