Jim, well put.


I grew up in Puyallup in the 50s and 60s and only recently appreciate the vast areas of marshlands between there and Renton that now, with fill and development, are really unpleasant to be near.


Sometimes I wonder what I would have done if asked to plan for the growing populations in Western WA- before all of this development. I believe I would have put the warehouses in the hills above the valleys. I also believe I would have not put freeways and other development on our marshes, stream and river deltas and estuaries. When I am within and immersed in the sights, sounds and aromas of the great Nisqually WR and the Reifel reserves, I have a better understanding of what we have lost and what still could be.


Dan Reiff ----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Owens" <jimo at brainerd.org>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 5:19:14 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Speklebellies Place at Emerald Downs


Tweets,

Handicapped by weather only a duck or a birder could appreciate, I made a bet that I could find some waterfowl in the Kent Valley Sunday afternoon. Sure enough, several dozen Greater White-fronted Geese made their play in the fields to the west of Emerald Downs north of the intersection of 15th St. NW and M St. NW, accompanied by Canadian Geese. Other mudders in view included several hundred American Wigeon, many Green-wing Teal, nearly 100 Northern Pintails and lots of mallards. A half-dozen Killdeer, several Great Blue Herons and a Red-tailed Hawk completed the field.

Further to the north, the Boeing Ponds were quiet, occupied by Canadian Geese, Mallards, Buffleheads, American Wigeons, a Common Merganser and some American Coots.

My last stop was the flooded farm fields on S. 204th St. west of Frager Field, where I found a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk desperately trying to stay attached to a wind-whipped branch and upwards of 100 Green-winged Teal and assorted Mallards.

It was nice to find avian life amidst the soul-sucking industrial warehouses of the once-verdant Kent Valley.

Jim Owens
Mercer Island

jimo at brainerd.org
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