I have two reports of swans. One person indicated they may be mute swans-- a
flock of 5.
Has anyone else seen them, or better yet, photographed them. If so,
inquiring me and other minds want to know.
Please reply off list.
Thanks.
Martha Jordan
Everett
martha at trumpeterswansociety.org
-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2014 12:01 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Tweeters Digest, Vol 118, Issue 25
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Today's Topics:
1. Swans - Enumclaw Plateau (Aquila Chrysaetos)
2. I need a new bird species (Rob Sandelin)
3. Re: Unknown Bird Song (Jason Hernandez)
4. 88 and Great Near Yakima Canyon - Mon. 6/23/14 (Barbara Deihl)
5. white geese in Lincoln Park (Jo Ann Oliver)
6. Re: white pelican Mutiny Bay (Bryan Owens)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:38:47 -0700
From: Aquila Chrysaetos <ladyhawk707 at msn.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Swans - Enumclaw Plateau
To: "Tweeters at u.washington.edu" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <BLU172-W37FE3BD64A4D8E9533D0FFF0190 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
This morning, while trying to relocate some possible female Lazuli Buntings
sighted a couple of days ago in my pasture, I was distracted by the
persistent sound of a helicopter circling in the distance. While I was
looking through binoculars trying to find the helicopter, five SWANS flew
through my field of view in a northwesterly direction.
I had a grand view of them against a backdrop of trees, but they were too
far away to identify the species. Either someone has a flock of free-flying
Mute Swans or some overwintering Trumpeters stayed behind. I'd love to hear
from anyone who spots them.
Yesterday while I was searching for the buntings, a Long-tailed Weasel
crossed the driveway, made a short foray through the undergrowth, came back
to the drive, (coming my direction now) made a few more side trips and then
got to within about 10 feet of me (standing in the middle of the driveway)
before it disappeared into the shrubbery.
I'm going to keep looking for those buntings because I would love to see
some Sandhill Cranes or a fox. ;-)
Sandy Daniels, Enumclaw Plateau
Ladyhawk707 AT msn DOT com
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 19:48:39 -0700
From: "Rob Sandelin" <nwnature1 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] I need a new bird species
To: "'tweeters tweeters'" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <001501cf901f$f9148050$eb3d80f0$ at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Today I removed 22 flies from my house (my motto, always carry a bug net). I
came up with a new bird, the western window-sill fly catcher. It's
migratory, arrives in the third week of June stays until Sept. It lives in
your house, perches on window sills and catches and eats flies. Ok all you
genetic manipulators out there, make me my bird.
Rob Sandelin
Realizing that flies bring inside what's in the chicken yard. Yuck.
South Snohomish County
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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:26:15 -0700
From: Jason Hernandez <jason.hernandez74 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Unknown Bird Song
To: "tweeters at u.washington.edu" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID:
<1403666775.79116.YahooMailNeo at web125601.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Well! I certainly got some interesting replies! One suggested Ruby-Crowned
Kinglet, which isn't even supposed to be here this time of year. I got a
couple suggestions of Bewick's Wren, which seemed more reasonable. But the
correct answer turned out to be Swainson's Thrush -- I went to
allaboutbirds.org and listened, and the song was a perfect match.
Swainson's Thrush is one of those birds I often hear, but have yet to see.
Now that I know the song's identity, I will concentrate on getting the
visual.
Jason Hernandez
Bremerton
jason.hernandez74 at yahoo.com
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Message: 4
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 05:10:06 -0700
From: Barbara Deihl <barbdeihl at comcast.net>
Subject: [Tweeters] 88 and Great Near Yakima Canyon - Mon. 6/23/14
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Message-ID: <861E9D1F-5E69-46F9-BA27-233ED1084520 at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
We swung around on I-82 at about 1:30 p.m. to check out the Selah Rest Area
before starting up Canyon Rd. from the south, to check on a Prairie Falcon
eyrie and a daytime view of a Barn Owl nest cave. It was hot, around 88 or
90, but there was a slight breeze, and the blue sky and fine cloud
formations, helped with my mind's cooling process. Water helped a bunch,
too.
Although the rest area didn't updraft a Prairie Falcon for us as it had for
Doug Schurman during a WOS Conference Field trip, we did find a Western
Kingbird nest, with a pair of kingbirds taking turns on either eggs or
hatchlings. Also found some brilliantly red House Finches there.
On to the next port of call: Milepost 4-ish along Canyon Rd., for a look
inside the Prairie Falcon eyrie. The little (but getting bigger) fluffy
chick was initially near the opening, in front of his "pet rock", so-named
by Ralph Meier in one of his videos. The chick was sometimes up, sometimes
down, seemingly alternating doing little dozes with looking out for Mom.
Sue & I set ourselves up with camping chairs, binoculars, cameras, a scope,
sunscreen, hats on the ledge above the RR tracks and river and enjoyed the
show for about an hour (in mid-afternoon). The 3-wk old chick was most of
the show, but at finale time, immediately following our declaration to the
wind, that we were leaving, Sue heard an adult calling and we succeeded in
finding and following the cryptically-colored beauty, flying at mid-cliff
level, from south to north, past the eyrie and then back the other way
again, effortlessly gliding along. She ultimately headed up over the rim
and disappeared. Littl!
e "One-der" never surfaced to say "Hi" as she flew by - he'd headed off to
the rear of the cave, presumably to catch another 40 winks - he must have
had a good feeding at noon when Ralph videoed the Mom bringing in lunch, and
was succumbing to the after-meal flops and perhaps the heat, although that
cave was by then, in the shade.
Someone stopped to ask us what we were looking at and told us that one of
the 3 Bald Eagles at the nest at MP 15.5, had taken his first flight on
Sunday, but 2 remained at the nest, that day. We decided to head up there
to watch. Sure enough, one chick after the other stood on an edge of the
nest and flapped enough to lift off a bit - it was exciting and had drawn a
bit of a crowd (much to the chagrin of a grumpy ranch owner across the way,
who didn't want anyone parking in front of his gates, not even for EAGLES).
We discovered some bighorn sheep in the grassy, sage-y area across from the
eagle nest, and laughed watching 3 rams practice up for the rut ! Some
young people emerged from the river with rafts in tow and decompressed the
rafts, packed up and took off in their truck, leaving us alone to face the
wrath of the aforementioned landowner. After telling us to leave, and not
finding our snail speed quick enough for him, he dropped the "sheriff" word
to hurry us alon!
g, and we did manage to mosey away without getting a shotgun in our faces.
I guess bullying goes on everywhere. That left a bad taste in our mouths,
so we went off to the Roadside Grill in Ellensburg to alleviate that
problem - I did have a nagging thought that, since the Grill is just up
Umptanum Rd from the Sheriff's Office, we might get read our rights over our
burgers, but we made it quite peacefully through our meal.
Just had to head up Umptanum Rd. a bit, to look for all the usual and maybe
an unusual or two - and found both. The light was kind of strange as clouds
had moved in but the sun still was effectively creating a strange darkening
haze over all the birds we tried to view. So we were unable to distinguish
which types of bluebirds we were seeing. Every bird looked black as there
was silhouetting going on. It was strange. Our stand-out bird events on
Ump. Rd. were a robin/Red-tailed Hawk duo that pretty much ignored each
other, a Western Kingbird which divebombed and strafed the redtail, and
finally drove it off. But my most exhilarating moment came when I heard a
vaguely familiar bird call coming from the sagebrush - took me a minute to
realize it sounded just like the fledgling LEOW I had heard (and seen) 2
years ago !!! The bird was in the grass and kept moving around, begging for
food, but I never saw it - would have had to climb up on a hill in the 40
mph wind that had!
sprung up, to look further for the presumed owlet, and just didn't feel
like getting blown over on my beak, EVEN FOR AN OWL !!!
The wind suddenly dropped back to breeze-strength and we left Umptanum for
Canyon Rd., for another run to MP4-ish, to see how the Barn Owls were doing.
So glad we did. We could see the white forms of the 4 owlets, so they were
all still there, hissing away, and doing some bobbing and a lot of flapping.
Around 10, after we proclaimed to the owlets that we were about to leave,
they started hissing up a storm and, as I speedily rushed back to the scope,
I saw an adult come by the nest cave - didn't see whether or not it dropped
off prey. The adult then kept flying around the cliff area, and started the
usual Barn Owl shrieking - maybe it paid off, because soon there was some
"kleaking", either from that first adult or from the second one that also
joined in on the feeding event. Then, suddenly it was over - the 4 owlets
were still in the cave and we left for Seattle.
A few other nice birdnesses of the day: saw and heard (including the
'booming' sound), quite a few nighthawks, along the river, MP4-ish, and
along Umptanum Rd. Also heard poorwills calling to one another, Canyon
Wrens, Rock Wrens and Western Wood Pewees. The most common bird calls and
songs we heard were courtesy of American Robins.
Here is the link to the photos I took on this outing:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjZanjDo
Barb Deihl
Matthews Beach Neighborhood - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net
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Message: 5
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:42:43 -0700
From: Jo Ann Oliver <joanno at q.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] white geese in Lincoln Park
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Message-ID: <A6AD66EA-9CAC-4330-92AA-06E4C969351A at q.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Is the couple living year round at the south end of the Lincoln Park beach
area of West Seattle Snow Geese? They look like it but don?t act like it.
Perplexed,
Jo Ann in WS
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 10:12:24 -0700
From: Bryan Owens <obryan214 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] white pelican Mutiny Bay
To: "David A. Armstrong" <davearm at uw.edu>, "tweeters at u.washington.edu"
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID:
<1403716344.49073.YahooMailNeo at web162006.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hello,
A flock of about 40 white Pelicans flew over my dads house in north Tacoma
Monday morning heading towards Point Defiance. I've never seen them before
on this side of the state.
Bryan Owens
Tacoma Wa.
obryan214 at yahoo.com
On Monday, June 23, 2014 10:09 PM, David A. Armstrong <davearm at uw.edu>
wrote:
A great site this late afternoon as 75-100 white pelicans flew by just off
the water here at Mutiny Bay, Whidbey Island, heading north. Saw them
yesterday at a distance but 4 of us observed them at close range today, a
fine V-formation...we've never seen them over Puget Sound before.
david armstrong
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