Subject: Good Afternoon at Spencer Island 9/21
Date: Sep 21 19:28:29 1997
From: Christopher Hill - cehill at u.washington.edu



Highlights of the afternoon were two first year Franklin's Gulls and a
probable juvenile Sabine's Gull on the Everett sewage ponds, mixed in with
maybe 1500 Bonaparte's Gulls and the odd Mew, Ring-billed, and
Glaucous-winged.

I put the Sabine's down as probable because we only ever saw it sitting,
and I have little experience with them. It was about the same size as the
Bonaparte's around it, maybe a little bit smaller, but appeared shorter
necked and stubbier billed. Its back was medium brown, and the visible
parts of the wings were dark. The bill was black, the face was white,
with a partial brown hood behind the eye.

Some other birds seen, in no particular order:
1 im. Peregrine Falcon
2 Northern Harriers
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
Virginia Rails (heard)
4 Kildeer
~30 Dowitchers
1 Pectoral Sandpiper
1 Greater Yellowlegs

along with plenty of the usual puddle ducks, coots, great blue herons,
song and savannah sparrows, and barn swallows.

Tom Osborne (if I remember the name right) also noted a brief visit by a
Red Phalarope, and we saw three otters in the slough.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu