East Point at the Montlake Fill, Saturday morning.

It’s been a great winter for bird watchers.

First there was the irruption of Snowy Owls, who are still dotting the landscape mostly to the north of us. One was reported in Maple Leaf in early December. Here’s a photo of one sitting on the roof of the Ballard Library.

Now there’s a Tufted Duck (TUDU, to bird banders) at the Montlake Fill. And dozens of birders there watching him. (If you want to find him, look for the crowd.)

Classic Collection of North American Birds

Here’s what bird guru David Allen Sibley has to say about Tufted Ducks, in his Field Guide to Birds of Western North America.

Very rare visitor from Eurasia, mostly along coast; records are of single birds on ponds or sheltered bays….Male distinctive: black back and rounded black head with long dangling tuft.

I last saw a Tufted Duck in 1999, but not in Seattle. In Reykjavik.

The duck was first reported Friday by Constance Sidles, the guru of the Montlake Fill (aka Union Bay Natural Area). She says the bird is often just off the Fill’s East Point.

“It’s a male TUDU with quite a long tuft and black back, just a classic Tufted Duck straight out of the bird books…..

“Something I did not know: He can control his tuft. Sometimes he would stick it out from his head, other times he would flatten it against his head and neck. Sometimes he would make his tuft smooth; other times he let it get ragged. Before he dove, he would always flatten it so tightly he looked like a regular duck, not the exotic stranger he really is.”

The truck was stolen by a woman driver about 8:30 p.m. from First Avenue Northeast and Northeast Northgate Way, police say. They attempted to stop it in Wallingford – at North 35th Street and Woodlawn Avenue North. “The suspect failed to yield to the officers and began driving recklessly northbound on Stone Avenue North.”

When officers attempted to stop the car on Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline, the driver turned around and fled back into King County, chased by patrol cars from the King County Sheriff’s Office, the Seattle Police Department and the Washington State Patrol, police said.

The truck eventually crashed  into the concrete base of a light pole in a parking lot in the 11700 block of Aurora, according to police, and the driver was arrested and taken to Harborview Medical Center to treat injuries from the crash.

The suspect, a female in her 20s, faces potential charges of Auto Theft, Felony Eluding, Property Damage, and Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol and/or Drugs.

KOMO-TV has a photo of the truck. Stolen and prowled vehicles are common in that general stretch of Northgate, home to both a mall and a transit center.

The Seattle Public Library can help! Starting Wednesday, Feb. 1, free tax assistance will be available at the Northgate Branch, 10458 Fifth Ave. N.E., through Monday, April 16. Hours are:

• 4-7:30 p.m. Mondays
• Noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays

Free tax assistance will be available at various other branches as well. For more information, see the library’s news release.

From time to time we get emailed complaints about potholes in the neighborhood. Then the Pothole Rangers are called out.

A week’s worth of ice and snow have made the problem worse. Here’s an overview from the city’s pothole map. Green means a fixed pothole, blue means a request to fill one is  “pending”  (?). We don’t seem to have any yellow (not fixed for the last half year) or red (not fixed for a year).

But I know we have more potholes than this.

Mayor Mike McGinn says the city’s transportation department has $9 million available to address street surface repairs, which includes potholes. About $8.5 million of that is earmarked for main arterials.

“Freezing weather and heavy precipitation mean that we’re seeing more potholes. We’ve added dollars to respond to pothole repair requests,” McGinn says.

So let’s help out. Report potholes to the city here. Call in the rangers!

(Thanks to My Wallingford for some of this information.)

According to the project’s website:

The school’s current play structure and asphalt surface are in extremely poor and unsafe condition, and both the playground and adjacent city park suffer from poor drainage issues from the connecting wetland that is contributory to Thornton Creek.

The meeting, from 6-8 p.m. at the school’s lunchroom, 9501 20th Ave. N.E., “is intended to gather community input and ideas and to discuss where to focus funding, with the wetland area being key.”

More details are available at the project website, but they are promising free pizza and activities for the kids attending!

If you can’t attend the meetings but would like to share your ideas or ask a question, fill out a feedback form. Thanks!

Photo courtesy Dane Doerflinger Photography

SPS is asking the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) for a waiver for the January 19th and January 20th snow days. During the storm Governor Gregoire declared a State of Emergency for those days. “This [the waiver] is contingent on a decision allowing the Emergency Proclamation to apply to schools in King County,” the release states. “OSPI officials said they will have more information next month on how to apply for waivers.”

One of the days was made up last Friday, leaving the other two. According to the district, they cannot make up the days during mid-winter break because families and staff have already arranged their schedules around the time off.

As a side note, next year’s mid-winter break is not a full week, but a four-day weekend with the Friday before President’s Day a day off and that Monday.

The appointments are on Saturday, Feb. 11th, from 9-3 p.m., at Avila Dental, 11050 5th Ave NE. Suite 202.

If you or someone you know has a child who could benefit from this offer, please RSVP by completing the appointment request at the bottom of our website.

I live at the corner of Northeast 80th Street & Roosevelt Way Northeast, and after being out of town for a couple days, we came home to find two midsize trees gone from the parking strip on 80th!

There are some tree parts and some assorted plastic bits from a car left behind… Was there a terrible accident over the weekend? Did someone take offense to the trees and pull them down? I am bewildered!

One reported that Olympic View Community Church, at Fifth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 95th Street, was broken into twice last weekend. The expanded police reports, now available, show several thousand dollars of damage and stolen electronics.

In addition, a week ago another resident at Roosevelt Way Northeast and Northeast 88th Street emailed:

My neighbor just came over to warn me that his apartment had been broken into on Friday. He’s unsure of what’s been taken at this point but the front door sustained damage. A police report was filed. The resident suspected it happened in the afternoon but piecing together details, we now believe the break-in happened sometime between 8 a.m. and possibly noon. I was home, as were several other people but we didn’t see or hear anything suspicious due to noise from expected maintenance work.

—————————————–

Sarah emailed overnight to report her home, on Northeast 90th Street near 15th Avenue Northeast, was broken into.

My husband and I were out for two-and-a-half hours between about 6:45 and 9:00 p.m. and came home to find our back door kicked in. They didn’t get much – looks like whoever it was never turned on the lights (also, our neighbors were home and never noticed this was happening).

Whoever it was grabbed some booze and personal electronics, and emptied our change jar (maybe $10?) while ransacking the bedroom. The police said it was a very juvenile burglary.

Thought everyone should know! Sigh. Off to clean up.

It’s too soon for Sarah’s burglary to show up on the police crime map, but here (above) is how it looks for the year to date. It includes a dozen home or commercial burglaries, plus stolen and prowled vehicles.

Aiko Schaefer with the Olympic View Elementary School PTA tells us that at the location’s grand opening ceremony Thursday, BECU donated family season passes to ZooTunes that the PTA will auction at its annual fundraiser, the Red Carpet Stars OV School Auction on March 31. (She adds that BECU also made a donation to Northgate Elementary.)

Pictured left to right: Aiko Schaefer, OVPTA President, BECU Northgate Branch Manager, Elisa Miller and Joy Strechowski, OVPTA Auction procurement chair/photo courtesy the Olympic View PTA

You can read more about it on the PTA’s blog.