Subject: [Tweeters] Richmond Beach Redpolls and a few dips
Date: Feb 19 19:16:06 2012
From: J. Acker - owler at sounddsl.com


Great Horned Owl chicks on February 19? With a 33 day incubation period, this puts the egg laying date in mid January.

Thanks for the report.

-Jamie



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of wheelermombi at comcast.net
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 6:44 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] Richmond Beach Redpolls and a few dips



Hi Tweeters,

Just got back from birding with Dave and Sherry Hayden. We mostly stopped at locations along the I-5 corridor in the King County area that we had heard about but had never birded before. Our first stop was at Richmond Beach Park, Shoreline. We arrived around 9:30 and were lucky to spot the C. REDPOLLS fairly quickly. There were 2 mixed in with a small flock of Pine Siskins in the tall Red Alders toward the water as seen from the parking lot. A much larger flock flew in somewhat later and landed near the bridge, but flew off before we had a chance to get them in view. Thanks to those of you who posted about this sighting; it was a lifer for Sherry and only mine and Dave's second look at this species. We also heard a FOY ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER near the bridge.

Then our luck ran out for a while. We went to the Montlake Fill to look for the Tufted Duck that had been reported in Union Bay. There were very large rafts of WIGEON, and lesser amounts of SCAUP and RING-NECKED DUCK, but they were way out in the bay and the lighting made for difficult scoping. We did not find it, but we did see a few CANVASBACK. We also saw 1 very leucistic A. Wigeon that really stood out from the others. I had never seen this condition in this species before.

Next we tried for the White-throated Sparrows at the Seward Park Audubon Center bird feeders. No luck there either. It was already early afternoon and the bird seed was mostly gone and a lot of folks were out and about enjoying the dry weather. We did see several consolation ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS. In fact, I think that I saw more today than I typically see in a month. Some of the males were putting on wild displays and at least 1 female was being very territorial, chasing away all other birds from her bush and vocalizing incessantly.

We also stopped at Nisqually NWR on the way back to see the GREAT HORNED OWL chicks. We found 2 of the fuzz balls where Phil Kelly (I think it was) had described in his post the other day. Very cute; it looked like their eyes were outlined in kohl. An adult sat watching from a nearby tree. We also saw our first swallows of the year flying over the dike near I-5. They were a long way off, but were either Tree or Violet-green Swallows.

Good birding,

Lonnie Somer
Olympia
Wheelermombi at comcast.net