Hello Tweets!

First is my bird related question.

We are enjoying watching our winter - spring wetland filling up and
awaiting the ducks, geese, and heron to fly in for rest stops.
Something is already living in the wetland and I've not gotten a good
look at them to make and ID. Our property is just outside of
Snohomish. The birds seem to be hunkered down deep in the shrubs and
wetland grasses (no cattails). There are quite a few of them and when
I've been out mooshing around in the mud taking photos I spook them and
they fly out making an annoyed "scraaaaach." I think they may killdeer
or some other shorebird. They don't really sound like killdeer. When
they fly off they seem to be gray, beige and dark gray in color. Their
wings are a bit angular when in flight. They just fly from one part of
our wetland to another. I don't recall seeing or hearing killdeer this
past summer either. Any idea what sort of birds they are?

And now my herp question:

While slithering around under the house in the crawlspace my husband
found a strikingly marked salamander. It was a deep, dark reddish brown
with one very yellow stripe going from the back of it's head all the way
down the tail. Here is a link to a photo I got of it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gizathecat/4103505409/


Thank you,
Lydia Bishop
Somewhere near Snohomish, WA