Hiya tweets,

Got up reasonably early this morning and went out birding for a couple hours. Had some decent success when walking across UW's upper campus when I heard an odd buzzy song. I looked up in a red cedar and spotted the bird and quickly got into my backpack for my bins. Yup, my first Townsend's Warbler of the 2008!

I continued through the Quad (which is currently in full blown spectacular bloom - go for a quick walk if you are anywhere nearby) and on down to the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA). Boy was there a lot of activity down there! I started my list as I crossed the bridge by the E-5 lot, and then turned right at the first turn in the main path. Before I got to the first pond, I was had 28 species, including my first Virginia Rail of 2008. I spoke with a nice gentleman named Jolde (sp?) for quite a while and showed him how to pick the Marsh Wren songs out of all the other bird and environmental noise. Spotted a few more birds, and by the time I left him and headed towards the main pond, I was at 37 species.

On the main pond, I spotted some nice Ruddy Ducks, and out on Union Bay an aramada of Common Mergansers. Spotted a cute face in the weeds by the little pon at the southeastern corner and that face belonged to a Wilson's Snipe!

I spent a spell working around the backside of the Center for Urban Horticulture and then made my way out. Got a late Lincoln's Sparrow, and a singing Winter Wren to round out the morning with 53 species. Including the birds on upper campus, I saw and heard 58 species! It was cold out, but all those birds sure warmed my heart!

Brett A. Wolfe
Seattle, WA
m_lincolnii at yahoo.com


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