Hi tweets!

Just had an hour or two this breezy morning, and made some stops in Kent. Highlights:

Boeing Ponds - a dozen White-crowned Sparrows, some of whom have not got the black/white thing going on yet, so I was trying to turn them into American Tree Sparrows - nope! Also Golden-crowned and a single Savannah Sparrow. Still plenty o' ducks - Common Mergansers, American Wigeon, Ring-Necked Duck and Mallard, with plenty of American Coots and a pair of Pied-billed Grebes as well. No raptors there today, although last week I did catch the Peregrine Falcon swooping behind one of the Boeing buildings.

On Frager Road, and around to 204th: Red-tailed Hawk, Fox and Song Sparrows, Bewick's Wren... and then rounding the corner onto 204th, the little pond inside the fences near the farm had 50 wigeon, including two bright Eurasian Wigeon. Pintails, GW Teal, geese a'plenty, and a single Mew Gull on the flooded fields, and in.. well... whatever the big mess is on the north side of 204th now. It's not keeping the ducks out, yet, and there was mud... maybe it'll turn out okay, but it's always scary when people start putting in what is considered "habitat". We'll see!

The ponds at 212th were full of chattering Marsh Wrens, Red-winged Blackbirds, and at least 5 Wilson's Snipe flushing from the reeds.

Final stop was just at the very southeast corner of the Kent Ponds, where I saw a Cooper's Hawk, a Western Scrub-Jay, lots of Fox Sparrows, and my first Tree Swallow of the year.

Happy birding!
-Tim Brennan
Renton