Hi Everyone,

Yesterday morning I birded Fish Hatchery Road, Stillwater and the relatively new 'Chinook Bend Natural Area' that was donated by Nestle Corporation (who bought Carnation Farm after Carnation sold it) to King County.

FISH HATCHERY ROAD
I drove slowly along the road from the lower Snoqualmie Falls parking lot to the west end of the road's intersection with Highway 202, only briefly getting out of the car. This road, between Fall City and Snoqualmie, has a wide variety of habitat and species available A couple of notables along the road included:

AMERICAN DIPPERS - A pair of these birds was working Tokul Creek about 30 yards downstream from the fish hatchery bridge, feeding within a foot of each other. I knew there was at least one resident bird here, which is usually very easy to find if it's not fishing season - during the steelhead season the banks of Tokul Creek are often elbow-to-elbow with fishermen and the bird goes out into the mainstem of the river to avoid the competition. Nice to know there are at least two birds in the area and perhaps a successful nesting might result.

TREE SWALLOWS - As others have noted, swallows are moving north and have arrived at a number of places. (I am on OBOL's list as well, and it's been interesting to follow the reports of the various species making their way north over the last couple of weeks). There were about six Tree Swallows working over the marsh on Fish Hatchery Road - first of the year up in my neck of the woods.

STILLWATER
I walked the Stillwater trail (Snoqualmie Valley Trail, the correct name) from the main parking lot at Stillwater left to just past the third bridge. Spring is about ready to burst out completely, and there were good birds out and about as always. Of particular note now are flooded field areas - mostly between the trail and the river - that all held a wide variety of species of dabbling ducks. Several Ruby-crowned Kinglets were singing away to provide some competition for the Song Sparrows, American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds.

Between Fall City and Stillwater on Highway 203, there is a house to the east of the road that has a small pond in their yard adjoining an oxbow slough. The pond is a sure bet for WOOD DUCKS once they have migrated back into the area - I have seen as many as a dozen congregating there. Sure enough, the first ones of the season - two spectacular males and a female) were back at the pond. (There is no place to pull off the road safely here - it is a place I simply do a quick eyeball of as I drive past, as it's close enough to the road to be easily seen without binocs.) In general, the whole area between Carnation and Duvall with many small sloughs adjacent to the highway is a hot spot for breeding and post-breeding Wood Ducks. Last year at the pond by the main Stillwater parking area, I photographed a female Wood Duck with the unenviable task of attempting to raise all 25 ducklings that were trailing behind her - obviously the result of brood dumping since it would seem i!
mpossib
le for one duck to incubate that many eggs successfully. The image is at http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?photoID=3957915&cat=38974. [Brian Bell responded to that image last year that he counted 26 - I have looked at it many times since then and still count ONLY 25, smile!]

CHINOOK BEND NATURAL AREA
This area is on Carnation Farm Road just past the Snoqualmie River Bridge (heading to Carnation Farm from Highway 203). it is bounded on three sides by a very large bend in the Snoqualmie River, and by the road on the other side. It is basically just across the river from Stillwater, although the roundabout drive to get there from Stillwater makes it seem like it shouldn't be that close. Presumably, it will have many of the same species available at Stillwater, although it lacks marshes. There are two (gated off) old roads leading into the area, one by the bridge - heavily used by fishermen in season - and one a bit further down the road toward the farm. These make it easy to walk into the natural area. Between the two gates there is a pond visible from the road (with a pulloff) that often has ducks and herons. I used to call it Gadwall Pond because it seems that if there are any ducks at all on the pond, a good percentage of them are always Gadwall. At the opposite !
end of
the natural area from the gated entries is a stand of large cottonwoods. The rest of the peninsula is brambles, open areas, muddy fields and doghair alder. Unfortunately, the roads that lead into the trees do NOT circle the whole peninsula. I tried to complete the loop on a fishermen's path that eventually petered out in a thicket of blackberries which forced a retreat back the way I came.

In any event, this area was off-limits to birders when owned by Nestle, so would be worth some investigation, although I don't think it will be nearly as fruitful as the Stillwater area because the habitat just isn't as varied. Also, there has been a cure of well-meaning volunteers out improving the area over the last several months. From a birder's viewpoint, I'm not all that sure how much of an 'improvement' it will be as it seems they are taking the approach of blanketing the area with evergreen seedlings - which in a few years will look like a commercial forest operation given how close they're being planted. It would be nice if some meadow restoration work was being done instead with at least part of it, perhaps. An exploratory walk to the tip of the peninsula from the gate yielded about 20 species, with four COMMON GOLDENEYE working an eddy in the river.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com