I'd like to thank all the members of the trip yesterday, for making my first
birding trip an incredible event out of proportion to my most optomistic
imaginings! (And I mean that in a good way, too!)

Here's my list from the trip, and I only put down birds that I actually saw
in my binocs (or naked eye) that I felt I could have identified again in a
few days. (As in, I didn't count the harrier that flew by, as it truly was
just a black blob)

Canadian Geese, American Crow, Starlings, Robin, Bald Eagle, Brandt's Goose,
Great Blue Heron, Common Golden Eye, White Winged Scoter, Surf Scoter, Rosy
Finch, American Widgeon, Eurasian Widgeon, Bufflehead, Common Loon, Cormorant,
Canvasback, Red Winged Blackbird, Peregrine Falcon, Tundra Swan, Trumpeter
Swan, Dark Morph Rough-legged Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk (many many, including a
pair building a nest), Gyrfalcon, Sandhill Crane, Black Capped Chickadee,
Saw Whet Owl (snoozing in a bush, 2 of them), Rufus Sided Towhee,
Song Sparrow, Coot, Snow Goose, Turnstone, Golden Crowned Sparrow, White
Crowned Sparrow, Juncos, Downy Woodpecker, and Dunlin.

There were many many more birds (lots of different sparrows, sharp-shin hawk
that I didn't get a good look at, different wrens, waterfowl and such), and
also raccoons, opussum (saw this after dropping off my last passenger - it was
a very small one, from a late litter perhaps - it could have cared less if
there was a truck bearing down on him or not), foxes, squirels, and more
mallards than you could shake a stick at.

17 hours of driving and birding. Whew! And I'd do it all over again in a
minute. (well, 8 hours sleep and a minute!)

Thanks to Ted for driving, Mike for guiding, and to Deborah, Anna, and Mike S.
for letting me ask questions and use their scopes. I know what my next two
purchases are: good binocs and a scope!

Susan Collicott susan at pmel.noaa.gov
Computer Services, NOAA PMEL http://www.pmel.noaa.gov
Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6755