Seattle birds: two lifers, lots of crows, and an odd duck

[redbird]

My visit to Seattle wasn't specifically a birding trip, and we (alanro and I) forgot to take the field glasses and bird book along on the first afternoon's hike (we were thinking more of walking and conversation than of birding), but when you learn to look for something, you keep seeing it.

Thursday, we saw what I'm fairly sure was a Black-chinned hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) hovering near us for a bit (the bird probably believed it was hovering near a flower, of course) while walking along the former Milwaukee Railroad right-of-way, now a park. There was also an interesting pink-and-gray butterfly, or maybe moth (I can't find it in my Audubon Society butterfly guide), on the trail. On the way home, I saw an Evening grosbeak (Hesperiphona verspertina) out the car window, along with some kind of sandpiper, next to a rail line near the water.

There are also a lot more crows in Seattle than in New York City, these days--Seattleites may think too many, but I miss them, after the losses we've suffered from West Nile virus.

The following day, we went to the Washington Park Arboretum, where we got a good long look at a family of ducks: drake, female, and two half-grown ducklings. A long enough look for me to be absolutely certain that this bird was not any of the ones pictured in the Peterson guide: the white bib speckled with black and the dark gray bill are good field marks. I checked when I got home, and it's not in the Eastern guide either. Conclusion: some kind of hybrid, now raising fine hybrid ducklings, whose mother looked like a mallard, but I was paying a lot more attention to the male, because he had much more distinct field marks. We also got close looks at some great blue herons, two standing in different places and one flying above the highway. There were lots of swallows flying over the water while we were on the Marsh Trail; I think they were barn swallows (which I see frequently here in upper Manhattan) but I'm not sure: it was an odd gray day, with the sort of light that turns almost everything into a silhouette.

[cross-posted to birdlovers, in slightly different form]

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Early spring is much better for waterfowl around the Arboretum. I am not a real birder, but I've started watching out for interesting waterfowl on the bus over to work, and the variety of birds seemed to peak some time in March or April, including some ducks that I couldn't place. Now all the buffleheads and mergansers and the occasional wood duck seem to be gone, leaving mostly Canada geese and mallards and swallows on the lake.

[redbird]

Side note: Can I put you in touch with Adrian? I don't seem to have your email address.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

You may if you wish. Does it seem like I was asking you to do that, or do you mean it seems to you a good idea to do so? Anyway, either [ulrika at u dot washington dot edu] during the day, or [uaobrien at earthlink dot net] evenings and weekends works for me.

[redbird]

No. I mentioned our conversation to Adrian, and she suggested I should put the two of you in touch.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Well, that's fine, then.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

The only black-chinned I've ever seen was in Washington. They're nifty in the sun.

[cower2spb.livejournal.com]

i have couple of days just like it %))