Tweets,



Yesterday we did our Bigfoot [bus and bike allowed] Bigday Birdathon for
Seattle Audubon. It was a perfect day for weather and we had a fine group
(me, Sharon Aagaard, Joanne Cormier, Dennis Adam, Kathy Garamillo, Mary Anne
Rossing, Andy McCormick, Peter Mann, and Brien Meilleur). We started at 4 AM
in Discovery Park (four of us) for owls, then regrouped at 6 AM for a long,
slow loop hike around Discovery Park, to West Point and back. We then walked
down to the Ballard Locks, stopped for lunch at the Lock Spot before
catching the 44 bus to the University (three of our party rode their bikes
instead). Two hours covering the Union Bay Natural Area (a.k.a., the
Montlake Fill), then on the 75 bus to Magnuson Park where at 6 PM we pooped
out and called for help from our spouses to haul us back to square one.



Last year we tried this on April 22, Earth Day, and tallied 91 species. This
year we were up to 83 species before we left Discovery Park at 11 AM! Up to
89 by the time we had lunch at the Lock Spot, 109 when we finished at the
Fill, and 111 at day's end! All without getting in a car.



Highlights include: three Barred Owls calling at dawn; a singing
White-throated Sparrow that Matt Bartels told us about when we ran into him
about 8 AM; fair numbers of Evening Grosbeaks and Hermit Thrushes and a few
lingering Varied Thrushes near the Discovery Park visitor center, plus a
calling Hammond's Flycatcher. We heard a Common Loon in the middle of the
park, calling from somewhere, but saw another in high plumage at the end of
the day at Magnuson.



We heard one Western Tanager "karrecking," several singing Black-headed
Grosbeaks, and one Cassin's Vireo that gave us fits but eventually allowed
close viewing. I located my year's first King County California Quail; one
winnowing deep inside the brambles, but invisible.



Off West Point light there were Brant, breeding plumaged Rhinoceros Auklets,
a pair of Harlequin Ducks, and a pair of Marbled Murrelets, plus hundreds of
yattering Bonaparte's Gulls and a few squawking Caspian Terns. As we watched
a flock of Sanderlings coming to shore a Peregrine stooped on the flock and
just missed breakfast.



At the Ballard Locks there were five Barrow's Goldeneyes still hanging on
and we could just barely make out a pair of Purple Martins at the Shilshole
gourds, plus a Brandt's Cormorant beside a Double-crested.



We stumbled on an adult Greater White-fronted Goose at the Union Bay Natural
Area, along with quite a variety of additional ducks, including a single
male Cinnamon Teal, a single female Hooded Merganser, and a single female
Common Goldeneye, plus a Lincoln's Sparrow. The Solitary Sandpiper was still
there! We also located the little Brewer's Blackbird colony in the parking
lot (their natural habitat) at the golf driving range near the Fill.



We ended the day with a long conversation with Virginia Rails and a Sora at
the postage stamp wetland near the tennis courts at Magnuson Park.



Gene Hunn

18476 47th Pl NE

Lake Forest Park, WA

enhunn323 at comcast.net