Tweeters,

On Saturday, Feb. 17, I finally made an attempt to find the PALM
WARBLER along the Cedar River trail in Renton. In a nutshell, I was
successful, and had a brief but close-range view of the bird actively
wagging its tail, just north of the public restrooms. It took me almost
an hour to find the bird, but that was probably my fault, because I
started looking south of the restrooms, although I knew that most
of the previous sightings had been near or north of the restrooms.

Also present, and much more conspicuous than the Palm Warbler,
were at least 4 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, including at least
one male in close to breeding plumage. These were my first for the year.
They were flycatching from perches high up in the alders, whereas
the Palm Warbler (which was NOT with the Yellow-rumps) stayed
within 10 feet of the ground, as is typical.

There were no gulls at the Cedar River mouth, and I saw only about
100 gulls on top of the Boeing buildings, which did NOT
include any Slaty-backs. However, I did tally 32 species of birds
in the area, and the weather was gorgeous-- sunny, warm (about
58 degrees) and calm-- the nicest winter weather I've ever seen.
Mark Egger, you were there on the wrong day!

An hour spent at the Green River Natural Area (Kent Ponds)
did not produce the hoped-for Red-shouldered Hawk, but there was
a good variety of waterfowl at the ponds (including RING-NECKED
DUCKS, RUDDY DUCKS, and HOODED MERGANSERS) and
3 species of raptors (BALD EAGLE, NORTHERN HARRIER, and
RED-TAILED HAWK).

A mad dash to Duwamish Head in Seattle just before it began to get dark
paid off with SURFBIRDS and BLACK TURNSTONES (a flock
of about 25 of each). I have been skunked on several previous attempts
to find these species in King County, and was glad to finally find
them, huddled on the rocks about 200 yards east of Duwamish Head.
Timing is everything in birding, and only 3-4 minutes after I got the
birds in my scope, something spooked them and they all took off in
a tight flock, zigging and zagging and looking like they were headed
for Bainbridge Island.

Good luck and good birding,

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net