West Seattle Monday: Final full week of August begins

(Tern, with catch, photographed by Trileigh Tucker)

The air’s clearer, the week’s brand new, the month’s almost over. Here’s what’s up for your Monday, from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar:

GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE: 1-7 pm, mobile blood drive at Our Lady of Guadalupe, walk-ups welcome. Closed 3-4 pm for break. (35th SW & SW Myrtle)

FAMILY STORY TIME: 6:30 pm – bring your kids of all ages to the High Point Library for Family Story Time. (35th SW & SW Raymond)

TWIN SHADOW, LIVE AT EASY STREET: 7 pm, free in-store concert at Easy Street Records, with Twin Shadow. All ages. (California SW & SW Alaska)

PUB QUIZ AT SHADOWLAND: Show what you know. 8 pm at Shadowland. (California SW & SW Oregon)

SEE WHAT’S UP TOMORROW, NEXT WEEK, NEXT MONTH … by browsing our full calendar.

SIDE NOTE: For those who track local government – no City Council meetings this week or next, full council or committees. They’re on hiatus until Tuesday, September 8th, the day after Labor Day.

Ann August 24, 2015 (10:43 am)

Trileigh,

Very nice shot! Nice light even while on the move. Don’t see captured views of birds directly overhead very often.

Anyone positive ID?

My guess is Caspian Tern – reddish bill, short tail, fish eater…

WSB August 24, 2015 (10:50 am)

Trileigh identified it in her note to us as a Caspian Tern. She also pointed out the band – I couldn’t find her original note while in a semi-rush to publish this, so I didn’t include that, but she said she reported the band to an organization she found by websearching for banded Caspian Terns, and suggested to all who see banded birds that they take some time to file a report if they can figure out who to do that with – Tracy

Ann August 24, 2015 (12:19 pm)

Thanks for posting the info, Tracy. Yay for Trileigh for filing band report and second her suggestion to file sightings of banded birds when possible.

Often see Caspian terns hanging out near mouth of Duwamish (eating yummy toxic superfund, sludge-fed fish, no doubt).

Like growing number of birds, Caspian nesting areas constantly threatened due to a variety of issues, but ironically in PNW, one of them is the relative success of Bald eagles in last couple decades. Eagles are raiding nesting areas more frequently (plus other predation), which can cause the whole colony to disband, leaving eggs and young abandoned.

Caspians are doing better down on Columbia River, but if any successfully breeding / living near Puget Sound or Duwamish, is always of interest. Info collected from banding helps determine that.

Trileigh August 24, 2015 (2:59 pm)

Ann, thanks for all that great info about Caspian Terns! That’s really fascinating about their being threatened by Bald Eagles. I’m hoping that others may see and report banded terns to add to the database.

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