Following Amy Schillinger's lead, my quest for a
Green Heron took me to Lake Sammamish State Park
this afternoon. She had suggested looking at a
small pond south of the main parking area.
Literally as I got out of the car parked near
where I thought the pond might be, a Green heron
flew right by me and landed in what looked like a
woody area. Turns out it was a very small pond
that was so overgrown that I might have missed
it. I grabbed the camera and caught Mr. Heron
for a not bad picture right before it took off and
flew northwest. I could not see where it landed
but in the chase saw two birds with lots of red,
lots of black and a fair amount of white. Two Red
Adult male Breasted Sapsuckers that landed on
separate trees that were within 40 feet of each
other. As I approached they took off but two more
birds came into trees in the general area and
landed. As one came into his tree another bird
flew out - a Northern Flicker. One of the
Sapsuckers remained and was captured on the camera
and the other flew off in the same direction the
two earlier ones had gone. Not a minute later I
also found a female Downy Woodpecker. I have
never seen more than two RB Sapsuckers together so
4, all adult males was astounding, and the Downy
and Flicker were frosting on the cake. And oh
yeah, finally a Green Heron - all within less than
10 minutes of arriving. Pure luck.

Other birds included 3 Bald Eagles, numerous
Willow and one Hammonds Flycatcher, a gorgeous
Bullocks Oriole, singing (heard and seen)
Swainson's Thrushes, Chestnut Back and Black
Capped Chickadees in the same tree as two
Bushtits, and a Black Headed Grosbeak.

--
Blair Bernson
Seattle