Stopped off briefly at the Everett Sewage Ponds this evening just before sunset. Many Bonaparte's Gulls about, as is typical this time of year. After watching them awhile I noticed one with strikingly different plumage - which I immeadiately thought to be something different, like a Little Gull , but after seeing more than one realized that they were probably immature Bonies, which turned out to be the case after I got home and looked at Sibley. They are quite beautiful - as are their parents. I really had'nt looked at them closely before.

It was still quite warm (for late October) and the Bonaparte's were flycatching over the ponds - wonderful to watch as they circled around, and then suddenly move their head to snag a bug. It reminded me of the first time I noticed gulls flycatching many years ago in Bellingham. I was walking along the railroad tracks on the Fairhaven waterfront on a calm fall evening when I kept hearing a clicking sound. It sounded like an insect noise so I kept looking to the ground. But I just could'nt find the source of the sound. Finally I looked up - just as a Mew Gull nabbed a flying termite with an audible 'SNAP' of it's bill. It was quite a hatch of termites and many Mew Gull's were snapping up the insects as they flew over the lagoon. Snap, snap.

Aside from flycatching gulls it was mostly the usual suspects at the sewage ponds - lots of Ruddy Ducks and Coots, some shoveling Shovelers , a few Gadwalls and Mallards. Also a few Buffleheads way out there - the first I've seen this fall.


Jeff Gibson , Everett WA