A few Seattle Audubon volunteers happened to simultaneously converge
on the south tower of the GRNRA (Kent Ponds) this afternoon(Mon.
11/17) around 4 p.m. and the three of us saw 4-5 female NORTHERN
HARRIERS, perched, hunting & soaring at a varying levels. Two would
intermittently whistle back-and-forth, usually while perched -
question: do they call while flying? There was a treefull of
AMERICAN ROBINS, an adult PEREGRINE FALCON soaring high overhead, 3
RED-TAILED HAWKS, including two circling around high up and one
perched way off in the distance to the north. A DOUBLE-CRESTED
CORMORANT did a slow flight back and forth along the river, a few
CANADA GEESE flew overhead, a MARSH WREN "tsukked" below us and a few
AMERICAN CROWS cawed a bit and flew by, not visibly hassling any of
the raptors. AMERICAN COOTS and MALLARDS were swimming and sleeping
and occasionally sounding off. A BELTED KINGFISHER rattled and
perched. STARLINGS were present, but were nicely nearly
unnoticeable. A few GULLS meandered around high up.

As usually happens, five minutes after the other two left, I saw 2
SHORT-EARED OWLS in wavering flight, hunting over the grasses in the
most northerly field area for 5-10-minutes. Then one juvenile
COOPER'S HAWK flew in to sit in a deciduous tree. It flew out after
5 min. A NORTHERN FLICKER flew into the rafters of the tower to
roost, until I rousted it when I moved around a bit. It flew out,
around and, as I descended the tower stairs, back to its perch.
Darkness descended, too, at about 5 p.m.

A mellow hour on the tower.

Addendum: none of the 3 of us saw the RED-SHOULDERED HAWK that had
been seen in the fog up the road from here yesterday (Sun.) morning
and the other 2 looked in vain for the GOLDEN EAGLE down near the
Downs this afternoon.


Barb Deihl
Seattle, WA
barbdeihl at comcast.net