Since our productive visit to Suncadia and the Cle Elum Ponds last Sunday (5/6/), a few birds have come in and one notable was absent...

At Suncadia, we saw no White-headed Woodpecker and an incomplete hole where we saw the WHWO excavating a week ago - one hole on a neighboring snag, nearest the side road, looked possibly deep enough for a nest. We did see an Evening Grosbeak, Pine Siskins and a Barrow's Goldeneye pair that we hadn't seen last week.

At the Cle Elum Ponds, we watched a Lewis's Woodpecker fly-and-larva catching for a half hour and caching its captures in cracks and holes on the snag - some other birders who came by as we watched, said they'd seen the bird doing the same for a long time earlier in the day - it seemed the LEWO would run out of cache spots with all that it was catching - it must have been eating some of that loot or there are nestlings imminent.

Also at the ponds we saw and heard: Yellow Warblers (many), Western Tanager (1), Black-headed Grosbeaks (1 male and 1 female), Warbling Vireo (1) and a Hairy Woodpecker (1) that we hadn't noticed last week. Missing were the Nashville Warblers and Orange-crowned Warblers that were in abundance last week. All the regulars were present. Apparently we missed seeing Bullock's Orioles that others had seen there that day.

We were not pleased to have to witness a Bald Eagle chasing a female Mallard up and down the river (creek) - both disappeared from view and the Mallard's quacks ceased, leaving one other female without a pal - as others of you have noted, it was hard to watch even though "that's nature". :-(

When starting the trip, we saw a perched Merlin along I-405 - woo hoo! And earlier in the day, Ron had seen the buff-breasted Peregrine again, perched on the I-90 bridge, on the west end - we've seen a couple of Peregrines there on other occasions - a nest?

A nice short excursion. A few photos can be found at : http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzkZghd - LEWO and a Red-wnged Blackbird are the only bird photos - the rest are scenics.

Also, my Whimbrel photos from Camano Is. Sat. night are now viewable at: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzm3wcw As for the ID of the light-colored owl I saw at Eide Rd. that night, the verdict is still out as to whether it was a Short-eared Owl or a Barn Owl - will have to go back for another look after 9 p.m.


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net


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