Hi Tweeters,

Yesterday I led a trip for Seattle Audubon to the valley and did a little scouting on Sat. This is a great area to bird right now. The fog was thick yesterday morning. The first stop was to try for the Red-shouldered Hawk, which I can say with probability we saw the first time we tried. A hawk was perched on the osprey tower in the Kent ponds area. It was too foggy to try to get everyone get a look from the car approach so of course when we all got out it flew, but not far and perched lower. Through the fog soup it had a heavily mottled back and striped tail. Better view desired and we did try repeatedly throughout the day to see this bird better without further success.

2 Western Scrub Jays were found along the little strip of the powerline trail east of 64th st. A Merlin was perched on a snag on the other side of the road. Walking the fields of Kent Ponds we heard a Northern Shrike doing the same kind of call Connie Sidles described from the fill, almost like a dog whistle but not quite. We didn't know what it was until it flew by and perched. We could hear the ruckus of Cackling Geese up in the air but still too foggy to see. Then out of the fog came an adult Bald Eagle without prey to stir up the waterfowl at Kent Ponds. We also enjoyed listening to a Marsh Wren sing less than six feet from us off the path, hidden in the grass.

We went to Boeing Ponds which was pretty quiet, but at the very end the slate colored Dark-eyed Junco popped out onto the sidewalk along with some other Junco's for comparison. By this time the fog was clearing finally.

Along Frager north of 212th we saw another Northern Shrike perched on a wire. Along the Green River and 204ths there is some sort of arachnid phenomenon going on with mats of webs covering the ground in amazing quantity as far as the eye can see. Saturday I approached the webs and they were filled with tiny spiders. Sunday it may have been too cold when we were there, I did not see any spiders. Very odd and hard to say if it is associated with the flooding and or the unusually warm weather, but I bet it is one of the two. The fields are flooded again on 204th and have nice diversity of waterfowl including Canvasbacks, American Wigeon, a few Eurasian Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Bufflehead, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, Mallard, Canada and Cackling Geese and one Snow Goose which disappeared somewhere not long after we looked away.

Then we headed to Tukwila Ponds for Ruddy Ducks, more Canvasbacks, Anna's Hummingbirds and lunch. After lunch all of us enjoyed watching two male Hooded Mergansers display for a female.

Back in Kent at Russell Rd south of Meeker, Ye Old Fishing Hole has a freshly Pileated Woodpecker pounded snag without a woodpecker in attendance, but a lovely Wood Duck pair were on the pond.

Some of us went on to try for the Golden Eagle at Emerald Downs but we had to stop first for a swan emergency near Smith Brothers Farm. It was very nice to see these birds back in the valley. We saw three adult Trumpeters. No luck with the eagle.

Even fewer of us revisited the south tower at Kent ponds to try for Short-eared Owl. We did see one and when I walked up to the tower an adult Northern Shrike was in the willow tree. The previous two were immatures. We really had a raptor show here. The entire time a female Northern Harrier was perched on a douglas fir on the island occasionally calling. Two to three other Harriers were in the area including an adult male Scott found perched nearly at water level and partially hidden. At least 3 and maybe 4 Coopers Hawks were in the area, interacting and sometimes calling. In one binocular view we had Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Harrier and Short-eared Owl. Also distantly perched was a Peregrine Falcon.

The only things we missed I saw on Sat was Western Meadowlarks.

Kathy
Roosting in Kent, near Lake Meridian
(chukarbird at yahoo dot com)
Any driving directions contained within this message are given as a courtesy, beware, author is directionally challenged and will not vouch for them.