On Saturday, 15 November, Rick Romea, Cindy Sprecher, Gene Revelas and I
began our day of birding at Spencer Island. It was my first visit to
this lovely area, as I have been away from serious birding for a number
of years.

We saw much of what one would expect to see this time of year: Fox, Song
and Lincoln sparrows, Juncos and Spotted Towhees; Pine Siskens and
Goldfinches working the tops of the trees; mixed flocks of waterfowl.

A Bald Eagle circled in hopes of stealing the dead duck being dined on
by a gull, but the gull was the winner. A couple of Northern Harriers
hunted the fields.

Two Flickers flew overhead- one of them a yellow-shafted. All
kingfishers (2) were male.

There was a large flock of Long-billed Dowitchers feeding at the south
end by the river and on the walk back to the car, an immature Northern
Shrike zipped by.

>From Spencer Island we headed to Everett. We saw a flock of Dunlin
moving from place to place along the waterfront, by the 10th Street boat
launch and several Black Turnstones feeding on the rocks. Gene spotted
a
Redhead (and it wasn't one of the two in the car with him) which
inspired
him to suggest going for a "Big Duck Day" as Redheads (ducks) are hard
to
come by on the west side. He was not met with great enthusiasm.

We decided to hit the Edmonds fishing pier on our way back to Seattle
where we saw four Ancient Murrelets feeding next to the pier. A little
later there were two more in a feeding frenzy of gulls, cormorants and
Rhinoceros Auklets (and one Red-breasted Merganser for Gene's list).
Gene also picked up all the scoters here.

Gene and I left Rick and Cindy in Seattle and headed for Tacoma with one
last stop at the Kent Ponds for additional ducks. We got the last two
mergansers, but where was that Oldsquaw? Not eaten by the very healthy
looking coyote that was roaming the area, I hope!

All in all, it was a fun day and a great ending to a stretch of
unseasonably beautiful weather.


--
Molly J. Hukari
Museum Technician
Slater Museum of Natural History
University of Puget Sound
Tacoma Wa
mhukari at sprynet.com