I spent today doing the Skagit CBC in the Big Ditch area. First off we had
60 species, 1 short-eared owl and no snowies. I think I'm tired of Robins,
we had 454 in our area! Here is the exitement: we had originally a bittern
flying repeatly down and accross the dike at BIg DItch so I though to
myself, not a bad bird to begin the New Year. This was soon topped by
sightings of five (or more) very noisy rails, 3 of which were right in
front of us splashing around in the water chasing each other, apparently
they saved their partying for the morning. Then not to be outdone we had
another bittern fly accross the left hand side of the dike, (access
is through the second gate) at about 4:00. It amazing how quickly you
begin to miss a species, I was realising on the drive back this evening
that if I want snowies on my year list I better move quickly, there are by
far less than earlier this winter. Probably won't be easy to get next
winter. Anyways I would be interested in tweets sharing their New Years
birding stories.o

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA