At midday with very few people, essentially local citizens, visiting, it
was a peaceful survey. Maybe the 38degreeF temp and biting cold fog was a
factor in keeping away the casual crowds. There were a few sun breaks in
mid-afternoon with a beautiful patchwork of sunlight patterns across the
Sound. The birds are what would be expected with perhaps larger numbers
of Horned grebes, Surf scoters, and White-winged scoters compared to last
season.

Highlights: A BANDED GULL was spotted on the housetop right at the
entrance to the Beach Park and the north end of the Marina. My best guess
on the ID of this very dark brown juvenile-to-first-winter plumed bird
with muddy dark/slightly pink-tinged legs was a young California or
Western gull. The head of the gull appeared to have a faint greyish
wash, but overall the bird was quite dark brown; it was NOT a young
Heermann's gull. It had a single white band on the right leg with 3 dark
numbers visible. From what I could read with binos, these were either
125, 128, 135 or 138. Someone among the Tweeters community may know about
the gull-banding projects along the West Coast.

Others seen included 2-3 immaculately-feathered Bonaparte's gulls, 1-2
Mews, and the usual large number of Glaucous-winged plus hybrids.

There were flotillas of scoters (Surf and White-winged), grebes (Red-
necked, Western, and Horned), goldeneyes (both species with Barrows the
majority), American wigeon, and a few Buffleheads both north and south of
the Marina as far as the eye could see up and down the shoreline. There
were two Pied-billed grebes among the boat slips and a single Great Blue
heron, a male Kingfisher, and a pair of Killdeer about the rock jetty.
The usual party of Double-crested cormorants was on the Marina entry
totem and a single Pigeon guillemot, a Rhinocerous auklet, and a Common
loon were within view from the fishing pier.

The adjacent woodlands were quiet with few birds sounding or visible, a
single Flicker and a Red-tailed hawk perched in the conspicuous snag near
the Senior Center. However, Crows and House sparrows were abundant and
noisy.

That's about it; today, Dec 07 (my 53rd birthday) is a
stay-indoors-and-watch-movies day. Yikes, icy-road morning, then the
rains came...................

Cheers to all,
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA