Spent a fun day on Samish and Skagit flats Dec. 23. Weather, as you all know,
was perfect. Found an adult male American Kestrel, looking good with a full
crop, then a female taiga merlin, sitting high in a deciduous tree dissecting
a dunlin. Both were near Edison. Just south and west of there, at a
90 degree bend in the road, we watched an adult peregrine working on its kill
in a field. Just out of the corner of my eye I noticed an adult redtail in a
tree quite a ways out, I think I was drawn to it because the peregrine kept
looking in its direction. Finally, the redtail took off and headed straight
for the falcon, which tried to carry its prey out of there but the redtail
caught up and hit it, knocking loose the prize. Peregrine stooped and
screamed, but redtail kept the meal.

Explored a loop road that runs along the east side of the Skagit just north
of Mt. Vernon. I have no idea what the name of the road is, but if you look
on page 95 of the Washington DeLorme you will see an obvious bend in the
river, where it flows west under I-5, then south and then back east almost to
the freeway, just at the north edge of Mt. Vernon. The road is shown on
inside of the loop. In the middle of the loop, just west of the freeway, is
a large pond full of all sorts of ducks. Driving by, we almost missed a gray
lump on top of a power pole by the road. An adult gray morph gyrfalcon,
enjoying the sun. It had a full crop, and allowed us to come fairly close for
good looks. Finally, it took off in a lazy flight (for a falcon) and calmly
circled the pond twice, setting off quite a commotion among the ducks, but
the gyr seemed to just be shopping; we watched fly off to the southeast with
three fingered Jack glowing in the background.

After seeing these four, you can bet we went back to the Samish, just south
of Samish Island, where we had seen a prairie falcon about a month ago, but
no such luck on this date. I guess its a four falcon day, but is there a
"five falcon in two birding day month"?

Other fun sightings included a socko long look at an adult male rough-legged
hawk, beautiful and much grayer than the usual rough-leg around here,
balancing impossibly on the top of a drive in the ground fence post.
Also short eared owls on other fence posts. Lots of bald eagles; watched one
pair dive into a raft of ducks, which flew in panic as the leading eagle
twisted and turned in almost graceful fashion-- but I didn't see it connect.
Other eagles arguing over a carcass in a field, acting like vultures. At the
end of the day came back to the same peregrine, which had another kill on
the ground and this time was being harried by a harrier, which it would have
none of. Then an immature bald eagle showed up and began circling, we got
out of the car and the eagle seemed to decide that the opportunity was too
close to the road and headed off.

Ended the day watching flocks of gulls flying against the sunset behind the
Olympics.
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Name: Jerry Broadus
jbroadus at seanet.com
901-16th. St S.W.
Puyallup, Wa. 98371
206-845-3156
Time: 20:18:56