Subject: [Tweeters] Renton RAS trip report 1/24
Date: Jan 25 12:21:09 2009
From: amy schillinger - schillingera at hotmail.com



Tweeters,

I led a field trip for Rainier Audubon on Saturday, the 24th. 9 of us set out in 32 degree weather around 8 am.

First stop, Newcastle beach. Highlights were 2 Killdeer and a foraging Spotted Sandpiper. All got good views of this bird in it's winter plumage. Also of note; Song Sparrows, Bewick's Wren's, Black-Capped Chickadees, and Goldfinches were all singing as if spring is under way. What a nice sound to break the silence of winter!

Next stop, Coulon Beach at Lake Washington. Here the group saw 55 Great Blue Herons perching in front of Boeing. As we were leaving 5 more were flying in to join the group. Also, 23 Canvasback's swimming just off of Duck Island.

On to the mouth of the Cedar River. There is a significant amount of new debris that has washed into the lake here due to recent flooding. Not a huge number of gulls but Ring-billed and a few Thayer's were mixed in with the Gluacous-Winged and Mew's. We missed the Palm Warbler. Great close up views of Horned Grebes were seen next to the Kayak center.

We next made a quick stop at Houser Way and 3rd St. in downtown Renton. There, we saw the apparently resident Scrub Jays in the tops of two Oak trees.

Our final stop was Ron Regis Park just off of Highway 169. Carol was close to baggging this stop because of the cold but the sun finally burned through and she stayed. We walked to the NW corner of the park to a break in the blackberries and looked up to see a Peregrine flying West just above us. This is a first time bird in this park for me. I will definately be keeping an eye out in the future. Three Anna's Hummingbirds were displaying and calling to each other. One male was doing his display flight just in front of us and we were able to hear the loud chirp (almost like a quick referee whistle) at the bottom of the dive. Very neat soud and new to some who had never heard it before.

47 species for the day and even a bit of sunshine. Below is the entire list for the day.

Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Western Grebe
Dbl-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron - 55 viewed from Duck Island 5 more joined as we were leaving.
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Canvasback - 23 from Duck Island
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup - 7 from mouth of cedar river Kayak Ctr
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Peregrine Falcon - 1 seen on trip at Ron Regis Park!
American Coot
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper - 1 very cool bird to see up close at Newcastle Park
Mew Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Thayer's Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
Anna's Hummingbird - 3 displaying and doing J dive w/ chirp! - at Ron Regis Park Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay Western
Scrub-Jay - 3
American Crow
Blk-capped Chickadee
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - at almost every stop. 2 displaying their ruby on crowns at Newcastle Park!
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler - seen or heard at every stop!
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow - heard at Ron Regis
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch -

Amy Schillinger
Renton, WA
schillingera at hotmail.com

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