Hi Tweets:
Roger Orness and I met to bird in the Green River valley today, Thurs, Dec 30. It started out sunny and cold, about 30 degrees, with 1/4 inch of snow pellets on the ground and back roads. We started at 10am at M St. The pond at the first pullout was not frozen. There were 60 Cackling Geese, 22 Wht-fronted Geese, over 100 Grn-w Teal, over 100 N. Pintail, over 40 Amer. Wigeon, and 120 Dunlin. We heard a Killdeer. A Bald Eagle flew in diving on the flocks, and got the birds up. As we drove out of M St and then north, we saw 2 Cooper's Hawks on our route. At Smith Bros Dairy fields, we stopped at the second pullout. It is on the east side of the road, and you look west to the manure settling pond, and at a large sandpile. There was no wind and the sun was shining. To the north, a large Peregrine Falcon was perched on its favorite telephone pole in the field. A female Amer. Kestrel was eating prey near the manure pond. A coyote strolled about. 30 Western Meadowlarks flew on occasion, also over by the manure pond. 7 Trumpeter Swans flew from the field near I-167 over to the west of the big fields where a number of other swans were down in the grasses.
Driving north we stopped at the Fishing Hole in Kent on Frager Rd at Meeker. It is right next to I-167. I was looking for the juv. Green Heron that has been seen this fall, and also on our CBC on Sunday, Dec 26. It hangs out at the NE corner of the Fishing Hole. I walked over near it, but didn't see it. I turned back, and must have flushed it, because Roger saw it fly to the NW corner. Driving north, we stopped briefly at the Kent Ponds east knoll on 64th Ave and saw some ducks huddled where the pond wasn't frozen. Two adult Bald Eagles were perched side by side on a power tower. A flock of Cackling Geese flew around but never landed. We were looking for N. Harriers, because we did not get any on our Kent-Auburn CBC. We did not see any, but Matt Knox told us he saw two on Wed at Kent Ponds, so we can add them to the count for count week.
Later I stopped by Boeing Ponds, but the Peregrine was not there. From the mitigated pond on S 212th, I viewed the 204th St ponds to the north. They are frozen, and almost all of the waterfowl are gone. On the CBC Charlie Wright said there were 2000 Pintails, and 1200 G-w Teal there. The ponds were not frozen then.
With the sunshine and no wind, today was a nice day for birding in the valley. It finally warmed up to 37 degrees.
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines
carol.schulz50 at gmail