Tweets -

This afternoon I canoed the Black River of Thurston County from the
landing 2.0 miles south of Littlerock (RM 15.35), downriver to the old
railroad trestle at RM 14.1, then 0.35 mile up the old secondary
channel as far as possible, and return, the whole twice covering ~1.6
miles.

I was pleased to find at least 2 Green Heron and an Osprey, plus an
abundance of singing and calling Swainson's Thrush. (Full list below.)
But I missed seeing the often large numbers of Great Blue Heron, Pied-
billed Grebe, and swallows I commonly saw here in mid-summer in the
1980s and early 2000s. (The last time I was here was 2002.) On the
other hand, bird activity has recently been low at the places I
regularly visit. Now that I'm again able to do canoeing, I need to come
here regularly also.

A question: Has anyone noticed a long-term decline in summering Pied-
billed Grebe in western Washington?

This report was mailed for Doug Canning by http://birdnotes.net

Also seen: 1 muskrat. Water level about at ordinary high water.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Green Heron (Butorides virescens) 2 [1]
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 1 [2]
Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) 3 [3]
Common Raven (Corvus corax) 1
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 3 [4]
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) 1
Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus) 13 [5]
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 2
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 4
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 1 [6]
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) 2 [7]

Footnotes:

[1] Two seen twice or four seen.
[2] One seen twice or two seen.
[3] One pair perched in same snag, plus other individual birds.
[4] Calling.
[5] 10 singing; 3 calling.
[6] Male.
[7] Males.

Total number of species seen: 11

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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Wash.
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