Subject: [Tweeters] King County birding
Date: Nov 20 19:40:37 2007
From: Marv Breece - mbreece at earthlink.net


Today I went twitching for sparrows in King County. I started at Kent Ponds, where the AMERICAN TREE SPARROW showed up with little effort. Thanks to those who found and posted this bird and to Carol Schultz for obtaining permission to enter a closed area in order to see this bird.

The adult plumaged RED-SHOULDERED HAWK was perched in a tree just south of the animal shelter. This bird is stunning!

It seemed to be one of those lucky days, when the weather is fine and the birds are showing, so I headed to Carnation in hopes of seeing a SWAMP SPARROW. It took about an hour to finally get a brief look at one. It was across the road (east ) from the location where Gene Hunn originally found the bird. At the same location, there was a partially albinistic SONG SPARROW. This bird had quite a bit of white feathering on the head. A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK flew in and briefly perched.

Next I headed to Nestle's to see John Tubb's SNOW GEESE. I saw 2 juvenile birds. One was chumming with 6 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. There were also CANADA GEESE (moffit) and CACKLING GEESE (minima). My guess is that there were other subspecies as well. A nice assortment of geese species and subspecies. An adult PEREGRINE FALCON was perched high atop a snag, looking for the next meal.

I decided to try for a better look at the SWAMP SPARROW, so I returned to the marsh. No luck with the sparrow. Instead, a PILEATED WOODPECKER called, drawing my attention to the bird, perched not far away. A few minutes later, 6 vocal TRUMPETER SWANS flew overhead in a southerly direction.

It was a good day.

Marv Breece
Seattle, WA
mbreece at earthlink.net