Hi Tweeters:
SeaTac Airport received 1.1" of rain during the night and into the morning hours on
Sept 4, so I got out birding a bit in the North Kent area. I was hoping for a
fallout. It
wasn't exactly a fallout, but I saw some migrants on Tue and Wed, Sept 4 & 5.
On Tue, Sept 4 I went to Grandview Park in the afternoon. Grandview Park is an
off-leash dog park on the top of the bluff up to the west of Kent Ponds. (Reach from
Military Rd, and S 228th. Travel north on Military about 1/2 mile north from
Kent-Des
Moines Rd.) The bluff runs north and south here, and sometimes the park has
migrating birds, especially around the parking lots. On Tue afternoon I saw 4
Western Tanagers (WETA), a Yellow Warbler, and a Swainson's Thrush. There were about
30 Violet-green Swallows, a few Barn Swallows, and lots of Cedar Waxwings (CEWA)
including juv CEWA's. The tanagers were flying around very quickly, and only called
their "prdit" call a couple of times. Only one of the tanagers was yellow (a male),
and it did not have it's breeding red-colored head. Most of the tanagers were a dull
green, and had very faint wing bars.
This morning, Wed, Sept 5, I returned to Grandview Park in the morning at 9am, and
birded the parking
lots again. The weather was warm and sunny. Most bird activity is near the
sanican, and the birds dart back and forth over the parking lots and road.
There were good views of at least two Or-crowned Warblers. Mostly they were low, but
sometimes one would fly around the tops of the tall cottonwoods. A Swainson's Thrush
was chasing some robins in and out of the alders. The Sw. Thrush called a few times
using a different call than what I have heard before. It sounded like a plaintive
"whee". A juv Cooper's Hawk flew around the area, and at one point landed on the
fence right in front of me.
I had a good study of flycatchers. A Western Wood-Pewee, and a Willow Flycatcher
were fly-catching. They were silent, except the Willow called "whit" a couple of
times. The Willow Fly flicked its tail, and the pewee did not. One of two
Anna's Hummers was mobbing the Willow Flycatcher. A Warbling Vireo was flying about
quickly in willows near the
sanican. I heard the song of the WWPewee a couple of times.
There were two tanagers flying about. These were pretty skulky. Three kinds of
woodpeckers were active: two Downy Woodpeckers, many No Flickers, and one Pileated
Woodpecker (heard). White-crowned Sparrows were along the fence w/ the many House
Finches. One was a very-young juv White-crowned Sparrow that had me fooled. There
were lots of Cedar Waxwings and VG Swallows. I thought I heard the
song of a Pac Slope Flycatcher in the cottonwoods a couple of times, but never could
see it.
Down in the valley on 204th St, there was still no water on the weedy field. About
1000 Starlings were feeding and they balled up when a Cooper's Hawk came in. There
were also hundreds of Barn Swallows flying, and some Violet-green Swallows with them.
On my way home, I stopped at the S 212th St construction pond, and there was a little
new water in it. There was one Least Sandpiper, and one Killdeer there.

Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines, WA
linusq at att.net