Six of us started out at 7:30a.m. Sat. to bird the Reifel Sanctuary and
Vancouver area. A light rain turned to heavy rain and then snow a few miles
north of Mt. Vernon. So we reconsidered and decided to hit the Samish &
Skagit Flats instead. At the west 90 we saw two snowy owls, an adult
Peregrine Falcon on top of a power pole and two poles away was an immature
Peregrine. We also had a number of R-tailed Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks,
Northern Harriers, Bald Eagles, Dunlin. End of Rawlins Road produced no
Short-eared Owls, but we did see one at the Jensen Access. At the Big Ditch
Access, we saw six Snowy Owls and in a few minutes of sunshine got some good
looks at the beautiful birds. At the entrance to Boe Road south of Stanwood
there were about 200 swan, most of them Trumpeters with a few Tundras. In
the fields at the end of Boe Road we saw two American Kestrels and about 300
yards south of the road, there were thousands of Snow Geese, must have been
50-100,000. After watching the news tonight apparently we made a good
decision in not continuing on north and we were pleased with what we did see
using our alternate plan.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA