Hi Tweeters,

The Kent Ponds Census was today and we had some good sightings. 3 young Coopers Hawks were seen by the fields team literally playing on the kids playground equipment at the park across from the main entrance to the fields area. They also saw a hatch year female Harrier, a Merlin, a Kestrel, and an Osprey, along with the expected Red-tailed Hawks. Later some participants saw 2 Merlins chasing each other. The ponds team saw a big influx of ducks since last month including American Wigeon, American Coot, Gadwall, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, and Ruddy Ducks. One Blue-winged Teal was seen in flight in direct comparison to the big Mallards it flew with. Large numbers of Cedar Waxwings and good numbers of mostly Violet-green Swallows were observed by both teams. One Purple Finch, 2 Band-tailed Pigeons and an early Hermit Thrush were noted and not often noted on the census if at all. One silent but nicely photographed flycatcher was finally
deemed to be most likely a Willow Flycatcher.

After the census I ran into some of the censusers at the "old Thomas Pond" south of Corporate Express and I told them they needed to go the the new pond as I had already had a nice shorebird bonanza there. We saw probably at least 12 Pectoral Sandpipers, about 4-6 Dowitchers of which there was no consensus to species, one Semipalmated Plover, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, about a half dozen Western Sandpipers, 2 Green Herons, and about a dozen American Pipets. The mud is thick so road birding is better.

The Kent Ponds census area is also known as GRNRA for Green River Natural Resources Area, info about this place can be found on the Rainier Audubon Website.

The new Thomas Pond is sandwiched between Corporate Express and Toysmith on Frontage Road south of 277th St in Kent, right at the Kent/Auburn border. It may not look like much is going on here but it is worth checking out, I have really only been completely skunked on shorebirds here once and I found the culprit perched on one of the big power towers, a Peregrine Falcon.

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.