10 birders were on this East Lake WA Audubon (ELWAS) field trip to West Seattle. It was a cloudy, windy morning which was cold when we were buffeted by the strong wind. But, it didn't rain and we ended up with a respectable 39 species. We started at Salty's where the BALD EAGLE was perched near the nest. a GREAT BLUE HERON flew up from the shore. In the water were one PIGEON GUILLEMOT, RED-NECKED GREBES, HORNED GREBES, many RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS and BARROW'S GOLDENEYE. One harbor seal was lying on a float out in Elliot Bay while over a dozen California Sea Lions were barking and cavorting in the water at the entrance to the Duwamish R. We moved on to the boat launch ramp area where one BLACK TURNSTONE flew in and landed just below us. A BRANDT'S CORMORANT flew by and a number of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS were in the water. Our next stop was at the small park at Duwamish Head. On the rocks on the east side were about 10 BLACK TURNSTONES in open view and close. Among them !
were two SURFBIRDS. All of them stayed around and gave us excellent views. Four COMMON LOONS surprised us by feeding in close to the shoreline. Over on the shoreline south of Alki Point we stopped at a number of places. The surf was very rough with the wind coming right in our faces which made it difficult only being able to see the birds at the crests of the waves. But we did see lots of SURF SCOTERS, a pair of BLACK SCOTERS, about 10 HARLEQUIN DUCKS. a number of BUFFLEHEAD and three BRANT geese flew by. Our last area was Lincoln Park where we picked up a number of the small birds, BROWN CREEPERS, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, GOLDEN & RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS and BEWICK'S WRENS. It ended up being very good birding despite the cold wind.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at earthlink dot net