Subject: [Tweeters] Discovery_Park_=28King_Co=2E=29_=E2=80=94_R
Date: Dec 26 14:00:57 2017
From: Chris Rurik - chrisrurik at gmail.com


Greetings all,

Today Scot Duncan and I birded a grand loop at Discovery Park. We ended up
with 59 species. Trust me, when you've been birding in Colorado the last
five-plus winters, where thirty species in a location is considered a great
haul for December, the activity and abundance of birds here is not
something I'll soon take for granted.

Highlights:

- Close encounter with a Hutton's Vireo on the edge of the visitors center
parking lot.

- Around the point we cleaned up on loons and grebes. We had multiple
Pacific and Red-throated Loons and a single Common Loon. In addition to the
abundant Horned Grebes, we had quite a few Red-necked, a distant raft of
~100 Westerns, and best of all a single Eared Grebe, which was diving
constantly just offshore north of the water treatment plant.

- Also on the point was an American Pipit. When we first got out there a
Peregrine Falcon flew over and across the Sound.

- As we passed the long wooded pond north of the water treatment plant,
Scot picked up on some finch noises coming from the birches along the
shoreline. We searched and eventually found about twelve Common Redpolls
that were mostly silent and occasionally flew to other trees. Look for the
eagle perched in the...oh wait, that might not be there. Walking the path
north along the pond, it's almost to where the pond ends and the path again
goes alongside the shoreline.

As per usual we overstayed our self-imposed cutoff time by over an
hour...and it was more than worth it.

Great birding (in December!),

Chris Rurik
Seattle / Anchorage

--
*Chris Rurik*
Writer / Naturalist / Historian
Co-founder of GARO <http://www.garostation.com>
(253) 225-7104
chrisrurik at gmail.com