Hi All,

Delia & I went to Samamish State Park (north of Issaquah off I-90) today. We didn?t see anything terribly rare but wanted to post a report from that park since it seems like the ?poor cousin? of birding areas, judging by lack of tweeter reports coming from there, and I wonder if there is simple detection bias going on. (ie
Does somebody out there want to be the Michael Hobbs or Phil Kelly of Sammamish State Park?)

We did about as much total walking as we do doing the loop at Nisqually, although we obviously covered much less total terrain. The Park can be a little frustrating with its constant ball fields, roads and boat launches but there?s a fair amount of habitat there and a lot of it is gorgeous riparian areas with willow forests, oldgrowth Cottonwoods and meadow. It also has an annex on the East side of the Samamish Parkway that we didn?t know about where we saw a Hairy Woodpecker couple and heard a Barred Owl and which was very charming on this warm March afternoon.

Here?s our list in the order we saw them:


Northern Flicker
Dark-eyed Junco
American Robin
American Crow
American Goldfinch --this was the patriotic section of the park
American Coot
Pine Siskin
Mallard The Mallards were really paired up
Tree Swallow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-capped Chickadee
Ring-billed Gull
Bufflehead
Great Blue Heron There?s a fairly large active Heronry there now?which the park seems to be giving a nice buffer to
Bewick?s Wren
Purple Finch --these guys were singing vociferously
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow
House Finch
Green Heron
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Pileated Woodpecker
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet?These also made their own beautiful additions to the sound track
Winter Wren
Pied-billed Grebe
Gadwall
Green-winged Teal
Double-crested Cormorant
Killdeer
European Starling
Greater Scaup
Common Merganser
Glaucous-winged Gull
Western Grebe
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Brown Creeper
Bald Eagle
Bushtit
Canada Geese
American Wigeon
Marsh Wren
Anna?s Hummingbird --we were on the lookout but no Rufous
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Hairy Woodpecker
Barred Owl

I?ve misplaced my mammal book, but we saw a shrew of some kind (big for a shrew!), there was an awful lot of Coyote scat, and we heard Treefrogs.

(Btw, It?s not too late to start tracking your 2008 YardBirds for the 5th Annual YardBirdRace. Update coming soon, and everyone is welcome to enter their current 08 lists anytime. Prizes benefit Bird conservation organizations, and everybody gets a prize).

Thanks all,

Ed Newbold Beacon Hill, Seattle, yardbirdrace at yahoo.com
Or ednewbold1 at yahoo.com



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