Making a Come Back

It's been quite a while since I have posted anything. I was thinking I was just going to abandon this blog, but not that I've settled into a new place and am getting out a bit more I will see about getting up and running on this thing again.

I am now living near Green Lake in Seattle. Green Lake seems to be a decent place for birding - at least there are a lot of water fowl there - I'm not yet a good enough birder to be very discriminating. On Sunday I went for a walk down at the lake (after having been inspired to get more into birding following volunteering for the Audubon Christmas bird count) and saw a pair of shovelers, European and American widgeons, coots, mallards, a common goldeneye and few ducks that were hanging out with the mallards but looked different and a bit bigger though I couldn't find them in the field guide (I wonder if they are escaped domesticated ducks?)

Today I walked through part of Ravenna park. It has the only semi-decent ground for tracking that I have found nearby. Unfortunately much of that is heavily trampled by people and dogs as well as strewn with broken glass. I did see a few sets of raccoon tracks though. I wonder how much time they spend in the park. I would guess they do much of their foraging in the surrounding urban areas, maybe just passing through the park to get to the next garbage can, perhaps they sleep in the park as well.

While I was looking at the raccoon tracks, I noticed a couple looking for a winter wren that was chirping in the underbrush. I talked with them a bit and they mentioned seeing a bird that looked a bit like a nuthatch but was small and had white marks on its shoulders a little further down the trail. When I got down the direction they came from I heard several bird calls that I didn't recognize (there aren't too many calls that I do recognize yet), but was not able to see any close up (and I don't have a decent pair of binoculars to help out with the ones further away). It was interesting to me to see the contrast between my bird knowledge and that of the couple. While I had been clearly more comfortable identifying the winter wren, while describing the other bird they displayed at least a cursory knowledge of several other birds which I am not familiar with at all (other than recognizing the name and having a vague idea that they might occur around here).