Subject: [Tweeters] South Kent Valley
Date: Oct 11 02:54:39 2008
From: Paul Webster - paul.webster at comcast.net


Hi Tweets,

Today (Friday) we took a run down to the south field on "M" Street in Auburn (just a stone's throw southwest of Emerald Downs), and not quite out to the Green River Trail we found Ollie Oliver who had already located the American Golden Plover, and generously shared scope views with us. The birds in this (muddy) field were a study in cryptic plumage, and it took either a bird moving or careful scrutiny of the ground to locate many of them. 20 Killdeer were pretty obvious, but the American Golden Plover was anything but. Neither were the 10 Wilson's Snipe we located in the field, nor the 2 dozen American Pipits. There were also 2 Dunlin, a single Long-billed Dowitcher, and 30 Greater White-fronted Geese. Walking back along the fence to M Street we heard the tiny contact calls of Savannah Sparrows that are moving south this week. We saw a couple dozen of them scattered from West Point to Duwamish Head and Constellation Park on Wednesday.

Toysmith Pond hosted a single Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, 5 Long-billed Dowitchers, several Mallards, and some two dozen Brewer's Blackbirds that scattered as an accipiter flew past just after we'd stowed our bins in the car. A couple hundred gallon-can native plants are staged south of the pond ready for planting that will probably make this site inhospitable for shorebirds within a couple of seasons. Which one could wish weren't going to happen.

Wednesday we found a Clay-colored Sparrow at West Point, and had a serendipitous fly-over by a Brown Pelican while we waited for a ship to pass through the Ballard Bridge. Together with today's American Golden-Plover we saw three new King County species this week. Almost enough to make one forget about the stock market.

Good Birding!

Barbara and Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.websterATcomcast.net