Subject: [Tweeters] Ospreys, TV's, Wt-front Geese, Heronry - Renton & Kent,
Date: Apr 3 07:40:22 2012
From: Carol & Lynn Schulz - carol.schulz50 at gmail.com


Hi Tweets:
I birded Renton and Kent yesterday morning to early afternoon, Apr 2 w/ Calen Randall and his family. Calen is a young birder who is writing a very-good Seen and Heard column in our RAS newsletter. He and his mom have great eyes.
The day was sunny and warm, official temp 62 degrees, no wind. We had a great day of birding w/ some birds seen FOY (first of year). Here are some highlights and comments.
As I drove to our meeting at 8:30am, I stopped briefly at the 212th St Pond. A very bright SAVANNAH SPARROW was perched up on the fence, my FOY. No birds down on the pond, but a person was taking pix down there.
A quick drive on Frager Rd north yielded an AMER. KESTREL and an adult BAEA. Lots of water on the ponds at 204th. I saw MEW GULLS and some dabbling ducks there as I drove through quickly.
I met Calen, his mom Cindy and sister Carley at Wendy's on 212th and 64th Ave S in Kent. We drove south to the huge Anixter parking lot, and saw a flying COOPER'S HAWK, a RED-TAILED HAWK on a nest, and some YEL-RUMPED WARBLERS. Then we drove over to a parking lot across from the Animal Shelter. Behind the animal shelter there is a fairly-new GBH heronry. We counted 27 nests. Wow, this heronry is growing fast. There were about 20 GREAT BLUE HERONS on various nests. Later in the day about 7pm, Calen's group went back and saw 6 herons gathering sticks and taking them to mates on the nests. We met a lady at the Fed Ex parking lot who said that a lot of the herons forage in the morning, but they return at lunchtime about 11:30am. Then a lot leave, and I presume they return in the late afternoon. The large cottonwoods are leafing out, and the view won't be as good in a week or so.
We drove north on West Valley hwy. There were 2 OSPREYS on the Longacres cell tower nest. It is just east of W. Valley, and south of I-405. These OSPR's were the FOY for us. From there we drove north to the Black River Pond at Black River Riparian Forest Park, a Renton city park. As we parked at the little pullout trailhead on Oaksdale and Monster Rds, we saw 6 TURKEY VULTURES migrating north. They seemed to be flying north, just to the east of the Green River. These TV's were FOY for us.
A lot of the ducks at Black River Pond have thinned out. Canada Geese are nesting. A number of Buffleheads remain. There is a lone female GREATER SCAUP. There are no GBH's. Only a few old GBH nests remain, and they are unoccupied. No Bald Eagles. A Cooper's Hawk was seen a couple of times. We saw a number of other species of ducks and small birds. 6 TREE SWALLOWS were flying about. Then we walked past the Pump Station which looks like a wier or dam. It pumps excess water from Black River Pond over to the Black River Channel. This channel looks like a water-filled ditch. It drains the pond and flows to the Green River. Past the Pump Station, on the other side of the channel, a trailhead starts. This trail goes behind the Black River Riparian Forest, and beneath the very-noisy gravel pit. We did not have time to explore the trail behind the forest. I'd like to know more about that trail. (I hope someone can tell me about the trail off list if possible.)
We drove back to Boeing Ponds, first stopping at a little park called Three Friends Fishing Hole. There is a nice restroom, trails, and water access to the Green River. It's located at 200th St and the Green River. It's on the east side of the river. We doubled back to Boeing Ponds, which had been very quiet earlier in the morning. Calen spotted some GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. Wow! There were 17 of them there. They were not there later when his family returned about 7pm. A small number of ducks remain, including several RUDDY DUCKS, one N. SHOVELER, wigeons, Gadwalls, and Ring-necked Ducks. There were about 40 coots. They bred there last year. The Common Mergansers that were there in winter were gone. The Peregrine Falcon has been gone for at least a month.
At 1:30, back at the parking lot at Anixter, just north of the Animal Shelter, a dark-morph RED-TAILED HAWK was perched out in the field. All told we saw and heard 45 species. It was a lovely day of birding. Calen sent me a complete birding list showing our various stops. Thanks, Calen!
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines
carol.schulz50 at gmail