Hi again Tweets,



After such an obnoxious post as the last one (my plea for Seattle CBC info) I should prob. try to make up for it by posting something with bird content.



I birded the Cedar River delta today between 3 and 4 PM. There were about 3-400 gulls when I arrived and there were about 600 by the time I left, with more still arriving as light began to wane. There were prob. at least 3-400 over on the log booms at Gene Coulon Park as well, although I didn't get over there to look.



The Mew Gulls are especially late evening arrivers at Lake Washington. I saw about 25 on the lake and I saw another 30 Mews?headed there after I left the lake and?had driven about a mile back towards downtown Renton. You would have stay pretty late into the dusk hours to get a good count of Mews sleeping overnight on the lake. What's interesting is that for many years I have noticed they have a flight line which comes through downtown Renton, via the south end of Beacon Hill/Skyway. I'm guessing they stream up the Duwamish as they come in off the saltwater for the night, following the old course of the Black River. Perhaps their genetic memory guides them as there certainly is no longer a river course to follow.



Here are the highlights:



Mew Gulls - 25

Ring-billed Gulls - 5

Glaucous-wgd/Western Gulls - 60 (only counted the most obvious hybrids, about 1 in 10 of GW types. Likely the true percentage is higher.)

Glaucous-winged Gulls - 540

Herring Gulls - 15

Thayer's Gulls - 10



BTW, the floods last month deposited a lot more sediment at the mouth of the river and although it gives the gulls even more roosting spots it seems to have decreased the duck population a fair bit. Mergansers, goldeneyes and even dabblers are less common than usual.



Non-gull highlights:



Dunlin - 3

Great Blue Herons - 23 (roosting on a secluded bank on Boeing property, just E.of the delta.)

Green-winged Teal - 1 (a bit unusual here)

Bufflehead - 35

Common Goldeneyes - 3

Barrow's Goldeneye - 1



Good birding!


Jim Flynn
Seattle, WA