-----------------Went to Long Beach Peninsula last week. Weather was far
from ideal, with the cold winds and high tides keeping most birds in
secluded, sheltered ares. Wind-driven showers of sleet and snow Sat. and
very windy, with heavy rain Sun. morn. before I left. Some snow Sat.
night. Saw a large Snowy Owl on the marshes--west side of Willapa
Bay--north of Leadbetter parking lot. Standing water, and high tide that
covered the shoreline trail++lack of high rubber boots prevented me from
going much further to find more of the Snowy Owls, and several other
species of Owls reported closer to the Tip of
peninsula.....................Observed: White-winged Scoters, Surf
Scoters, Brandts Commorants,Common Murres, Snow Goose(1), Trumpeter
Swans, Greater Scaup(1),Winter Wrens,Barrows Goldeneye(1),Pied-billed
and Western Grebes, Dark-eyed Juncos, Hooded Mergansers, Red-throated
Loon(1), Sparrows,Belter Kingfisher,Buffleheads, and a scattered
assortment of the more common 'puddle-ducks' and the usual tiny
shorebirds, like Sanderlings and
Sandpipers. ................At Columbia
White-Tailed Deer Refuge at Cathlamet, Wash......Friday, *very little*
seen, but on Sunday, on the way back home, viewing was *much* better.
Litterly *thousands* of Canada Geese, Eurasian Widgeon(2), Clarks
Grebes, *many, many* Common Goldeneyes,Common Mergansers,Hooded
Mergansers, Dunlin,Red-winged Blackbirds, No. Pintails, Am. Widgeon,
Buffleheads, Pied-billed Grebes, Lesser-Scaup, Ring-necked Duck(1),No.
Shovelers, Mallards, Harrier Hawk(1),-------along with White-tailed
Deer, and Elk. Also Blue Herons. Many of the species of wintering ducks
that I usually see here and at the coast(likw red-necked Grebes, Common
Loons, Canvasbacks, Red-breasted Mergansers, etc) were strangely absent.
The sloughs at the deer refuge were extremely high....in fact the
over-abundance of water at both places scattered the waterfowl out more,
and less obvious to viewers................Gerald Hamilton-----Brush
Prairie, Wash.