Subject: [Tweeters] Cle Elum - Northern Pacific Railroad Ponds - 6.27.09
Date: Jun 27 22:22:13 2009
From: Sandy Buzzelli - sandy at sooscreekfiberarts.com


My husband, Gene, and I went to the Northern Pacific Railroad Ponds in Cle Elum today.? We left our house in Covington around 5:15am and arrived in Cle Elum around 6:30am.

We saw the following birds today:

4 female Gadwall
1 female Barrow's Goldeneye with 4 young ones
Turkey Vultures
1 Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flickers
American Crows
Tree Swallows
1 Black-capped Chickadee
Western Bluebirds
American Robins
Cedar Waxwings
1 Black-headed Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Bullock's Oriole
American Goldfinches
...and many, many unidentified little birds (we have yet to put our minds to learning to ID the warblers and flycatchers, etc. -- but at least we knew that what we were seeing?fell into these groupings!).

Our highlights included watching activity at 4 different nests:

- feeding at a Western Bluebird nest in a dead tree?right by the road
-?feeding at two?different Tree Swallow nests in dead trees?in the water (one nest was absolutely charming, with 4 nestlings right at the edge of the opening?anxiously awaiting?the next meal!)
- an unidentified little brown female bird sitting on a nest?in a small?dead tree -- the nest was?built in a crook formed by three?limbs, and it was totally exposed to the elements and to our view!

We saw the most activity between 8:30am and 10am.? Things were fairly quiet between 6:30am and 8am.

There were many, many fledglings of various species begging for food and being fed by parents -- the day was absolutely?filled with family-rearing?activity!

One last highlight we'll mention here was watching a female elk and a calf cross the water where it was running fairly low.? Imagine our delight when a second female and calf crossed in the same spot about a minute later!

Sandy and Gene Buzzelli
Covington, WA, USA
mailto:sandy at sooscreekfiberarts.com