Subject: [Tweeters] Kent - S. 212th & S. 204th
Date: Nov 27 21:24:36 2009
From: Lynn & Carol Schulz - linusq at worldnet.att.net


Hi Tweeters:
The weather this afternoon was nice and calm and partly sunny. Down at S 212th St
near the bottom of Orillia Rd, 2 Trumpeter Swans were in the stubble field. 14
Greater Wht-fronted Geese were nearby. The seasonal ponds in the backround were full
of water and waterfowl. Two Bald Eagles were perched in the big cottonwood. A small
mixed flock of Cackling and Canada Geese were in the pasture.
Over at Boeing Ponds there was a brown N. Harrier flying. A fellow in a green pickup
w/ OR plates was there running two Harris's Hawks, and he had two small hunting dogs.
He had a neat set-up. As I walked into the ponds on the closed-off 62 Ave there were
two beavers resting in the sun on a beaver lodge. A 3rd beaver dove off the lodge,
swam out into the pond, and slapped its tail a few times as it swam. How cool! In
the ponds there were ducks including Hooded Mergansers,
Common Mergansers, and a number of Pied-billed Grebes.
I drove across the Green River which is now about 3/4 full and went over to S 204th
St around 2pm. At the small field at the corner of Frager Rd and S 204th, there were
about 1000 Cackling Geese. The 2 Trumpeter Swans flew into the large pond and stayed
for about 15 minutes before flying north. A juv very-dark Peregrine Falcon was
perched in a cottonwood tree. Then 2 COMMON RAVENS flew into the tree and displaced
the Peregrine. The two ravens sat next to each other, touched bills, and the smaller
one groomed the ruffed-neck of the larger raven. This was a great sight to me, as I
don't think I have ever seen perched ravens in the valley. The nearby crows left
them alone, maybe because the crows were grouping up to go to a communal crow roost.
A Red-tailed Hawk perched in the large cottonwood.
In the large 204th pond there were many Northern Pintails. Down at the far SW end of
the pond about 20 Dunlin were near a group of Green-winged Teals.
This area is described and there are maps at
http://www.rainieraudubon.org/kentponds.htm
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines, WA
linusq at att.net