Hello, tweets.

A few birds in the yard made me think about what it was like to live in a big city.

A Hermit Thrush was just at our fountain (that water noise, as has been said repeatedly, is a real attractant). I don't see them in the yard very often, but they are almost dependable in late April.

A Red-breasted Sapsucker was drilling new sap wells in one of our birch trees, a reprise of last year. However, their nest tree of last year, a red alder snag, is gone, either cut down (I suspect) or blown down. I'll try to find out if there is a substitute.

So these are the special birds today that prompted the thoughts. The species that are regular in and around the yard and seem to likely be nesting in the immediate neighborhood this year are:

Band-tailed Pigeon
Anna's Hummingbird
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick's Wren
American Robin
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
House Finch

That's it. No migrants, and I don't expect any, even after May has passed. This is a surprisingly short list considering we have a wooded yard with much water and feeders and are on the edge of a substantial green belt, but it probably represents the core species of wooded Seattle (the sapsucker surely the scarcest). Potentially resident species I've seen in the last month or two include Downy and Pileated Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Junco, and Pine Siskin, but I have no recent sign that they will be nesting. One of more of them may well be in the Thornton Creek ravine, and our yard is a bit far for regular visits. We'll see, when young are fledged and our feeders seem to become more important.

One thing that has always amazed me is the almost complete absence of Yellow-rumped Warblers here. I have records from fewer than half the years we've lived here, even though people recount massive migrations through the area (which I of course have also seen). Are they more common on coastlines (e.g., Discovery Park, Magnuson Park, Montlake Fill)? Yet they are also reported from Queen Anne Hill. One day a few years ago substantial numbers moved through here, one bird after another flying through or above the yard, some of them stopping briefly. That's the only time I've seen that; most records are of single birds. All my observations were in April-May except once in October.
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Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net