Howdy,

This morning (5/29/11) I debated staying home and trying to add Black Swift to my yard list or going to Magnuson Park. I decided to go to Magnuson because I knew overall I'd see a lot more birds there...

At about 8:25 AM, I saw at least one and probably three Black Swift(s) flying north. This was from the Promontory Point trail, very close to the north end of NE Windermere Rd (map available at http://www.seattle.gov//parks/_images/maps/magnuson.jpg). There were a number of Vaux's Swifts feeding over the top of the hill here, but unlike them, the Black Swift(s) did not stick around.

FWIW, birders in San Diego, CA have been seeing more Black Swifts than usual, though I suspect its due to increased effort and finding effective strategies rather than an actual increase in numbers.

Not too much else going on, and the second-most interesting bird (to me) was a male MacGillivray's Warbler at the same location. I didn't look around the westernmost pond today, but on Thursday, there was a female Yellow-headed Blackbird there, found by Evan Houston.

John Puschock
Matthews Beach, Seattle
g_g_allin at hotmail.com
http://www.zbirdtours.com

p.s. Evan, there was a male Bullock's Oriole just south of the east end of the Cross Park trail.