Had a lazy day of birding on the west side of Whidbey Island. At
Swantown saw a number of shorebirds including: western sandpipers,
sanderlings, pectoral sandpiper, dowitchers, semipalmated plovers, and
greater yellowlegs. Red-throated and calling common loons, surf and
white-winged scoters, common murres, and marbled murrelets were on the
Sound side. The best bird of the day was at Partridge Point where we
got a great view of a Pacific loon in breeding plumage - a first for
me. There were many harlequin ducks in addition to the species we saw
at Swantown. Must be good runs of herring as the gulls kept moving and
swarming from one spot to another. Lots of heermann's gulls.

Janet Carroll