Hi Tweeters,

This morning, I led a leisurely 4 hour Seattle Audubon field trip to the Montlake Fill. The participants were eager, friendly, and included some good spotters.

The top highlight occurred first thing, just seconds after I got out of my car - I heard calling overhead that was not immediately familiar, especially for the location - it was a lone Sandhill Crane that circled a few times quite low - it seemed to be thinking about landing in the field nearest the greenhouse, but then thought better of it and pushed on to the south - a nice Fill-first for all involved.

Other highlights were a couple Brown Creepers and an Orange-crowned Warbler along Surber Drive, the juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher on the main pond, 2 Western Grebes, and great looks at an adult Red-tailed Hawk hunting in a field and perched on far too flimsy branches. A single American Pipits and Pine Siskin flew over, and we were unable to find other warblers mixed in with the many Yellow-rumps. Sparrows included single well-heard or seen Fox, Golden-crowned, and Lincoln's Sparrows.

The full list, including approximate counts of each species, is listed below, taken from my eBird report.

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA


Location: Union Bay Natural Area (Montlake Fill)
Observation date: 9/27/09
Number of species: 51

Canada Goose 12
Gadwall 5
American Wigeon 40
Mallard 15
Northern Shoveler 4
Green-winged Teal 8
Pied-billed Grebe 6
Western Grebe 2 1 out on lake, 1 in lagoon
Double-crested Cormorant 15
Great Blue Heron 1
Bald Eagle 1 hunting ducks
Cooper's Hawk 1 soaring above the stadium
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Coot 20
Sandhill Crane 1 nice surprise, calling bird that circled low early on, deciding not to land
Long-billed Dowitcher 1 juvenile
Wilson's Snipe 1 seen by 1 sharp-eyed participant
Ring-billed Gull 3 mud islands on lake
Glaucous-winged Gull 5
Band-tailed Pigeon 10 flyover
Vaux's Swift 2
Anna's Hummingbird 5 lots of display dives
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 2
Steller's Jay 5
American Crow 20
Barn Swallow 8
Black-capped Chickadee 10
Bushtit 20
Brown Creeper 2 Surber
Bewick's Wren 3
Marsh Wren 2
American Robin 8
European Starling 5
American Pipit 1 flyover heard calling near main pond
Cedar Waxwing 12
Orange-crowned Warbler 1 surber
Yellow-rumped Warbler 15 both subspecies seen
Common Yellowthroat 2
Spotted Towhee 5
Savannah Sparrow 12
Fox Sparrow 1 calling from thicket along surber
Song Sparrow 5
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
White-crowned Sparrow 8
Golden-crowned Sparrow 1 1 in surber
Dark-eyed Junco 2 wedding rock area
Red-winged Blackbird 5
House Finch 20
Pine Siskin 1 flyover
American Goldfinch 15

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)