Hi Tweeters,

We had reliable observations of 90 species in Edmonds during January. There were no sightings of code 5 birds. Code 4 sightings included Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Western Gull, Iceland (Thayer's) Gull, all along the waterfront, and Common Redpoll at the marsh. Code 3 sightings included Wood Duck (Pine Ridge Park), Ring-necked Duck (several ponds), Lesser Scaup (Edmonds portion of Lake Ballinger), Harlequin Duck (waterfront), Wilson's Snipe (marsh), Red-throated Loon (waterfront), Common Loon (waterfront), Brandt's Cormorant (waterfront), Peregrine Falcon (Haines Wharf Park), White-throated Sparrow (marsh), and Brewer's Blackbird (Senior Center at Olympic Beach).

There is a back story of interest to the Brewer's Blackbird. This is a species that one would expect to find in urban settings such as grocery store parking lots and around hamburger drive-ins, where food leavings occur. That has not been the case in Edmonds. For several years, there was what appeared to be one mated pair in the Edmonds Bowl, alternately seen at the marsh or around the Senior Center at Olympic Beach (between the ferry dock and the public pier). The male disappeared a couple of years ago. The female continues to be seen on the beach, in the parking lot, or on the grass at the Senior Center. Her site fidelity is striking. There are plans afoot to demolish and rebuild the Senior Center, an LEED building to be called the Waterfront Center. The last article I read estimated construction at about a year. I do not know when demolition is expected to begin. The proposal has been a long process. A year of demolition and construction will displace our lone holdout of the Brewer's Blackbird species. She may or may not find another suitable location in Edmonds. On the other hand, she may die of natural causes before this project is shovel ready.

Waterfowl that are being seen regularly along the waterfront, in addition to those already mentioned, include Brant, Gadwall, Surf and Black Scoters, Bufflehead, Common and Barrow's Goldeneyes, and Red-breasted Merganser. A couple of Pied-billed Grebes have been lingering inside the marina, while Horned Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, and Western Grebe are also along the waterfront. Alcid sightings have included Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Marbled Murrelet, and Rhinoceros Auklet. Mew Gull and Western x Glaucous-winged hybrids are the dominant winter gulls, with lesser numbers of Glaucous-winged Gull, and Bonaparte's Gull. Pacific Loon numbers have varied from one or two birds to more than thirty. Band-tailed Pigeons can be seen from time to time flying over Pine Ridge and Yost Parks. So far it has been a good winter for Varied Thrush, but not so much for Hermit Thrush. The city cleared out a tangled patch of vegetation in Yost Park that included a lot of berries and where Hermit Thrush could be heard or seen in peek-a-boo views. With the loss of that cover, they are not there. Both minima and Taverner's subspecies of Cackling Goose were seen at the Edmonds Woodway High School grounds in early January.

We have added three species to the Edmonds checklist: Swallow-tailed Gull, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. We have documented 273 species within the city. If you would like a copy of the revised 2018 checklist, in Adobe Acrobat format, please send your request to checklistedmonds at gmail.com <mailto:checklistedmonds at gmail.com>. We also maintain a list of birds seen throughout the year in the bird information display box on the outer wall of the Olympic Beach Visitor Station, at the base of the public pier.

If you see a good bird in Edmonds that you think we might not have on our year list, please let me know.

Carol Riddell
Edmonds, WA

Abundance codes: (1) Common, (2) Uncommon, (3) Harder to find, usually seen annually, (4) Rare, 5+ records, (5) Fewer than 5 records
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