Day 5; Monday, 16 February 1998 --
-- 10th Annual WOS Conference, Mt. Vernon, Skagit Co., Washington --

[First of all a correction. Posting for Day 3, I wrote: << Dennis Paulson
and
Bill Tweit awarded Terry Wahl with the second ever 'Stella Schultz Award' ...
>> That should have read *Zella* M. Schultz Lifetime Achievement Award. I'd
like to have rather said that this was a simple typo since 's' and 'z' are
next door neighbors on the keyboard, but in fact here honesty must prevail.
Sorry, I wasn't thinking too clearly so early in the morning.]

No program features and final day with field trip to Boundary Bay and Reifel
Sanctuary, BC Canada. Highlights:

This was another one of those 'strange' trips where *all* the target 'five'
hit birds were nailed down and easy pick'ns requiring little effort or
patience even. Whiz, bang, tick, and back on the bus please :-)). Much of
this good fortune was much the results of our onboard leaders (Hugh McKenzie
and Brian Self) and the advance squad of 'scouters' already on site and
sprinkled along the route. And, at least I escaped BC this time on this
'wham, bam, slam' BC episode with all my possessions intact '-)

The weather was perfect, warm springlike, sunny, little or no wind, with clear
views of all the surrounding mountains from Mt. Baker to all those snowy ones
way up north on Vancouver Island with about 60 participants packing the large
bus to capacity. First stop was in White Rock for an adult male ANNA'S
HUMMINGBIRD visiting a feeder.

Next stop, YELLOW-BILLED LOON along the beachfront in White Rock. This
clearly was the uno-No.1 highlight of the trip and the whole weekend! Good
Heavens, what an accommodating bird!! I have never seen a Yellow-billed Loon
so close, so well, so long, and in such complete feather by feather detail!
The ultimate photo opportunity here with high mid-morning sun directly
'astern' while the bird pattered by and peered below the surface literally
right at our feet a few feet off the beach! Just way too perfect! This is a
1st year basic (winter) plumaged bird with lots of variable basic-plumaged
Common Loons around for direct comparison. Initially the loon was drifting
around for 20 minutes or so some 200+ meters offshore before it decided to
paddle inshore to the beach and give us that ultimate and finite study
opportunity.

This was in fact an excellent exercise to study and compare the bird at a
distance perspective before examining it up close and personal, better even
than the other way around. [1] Somewhat larger than the Common Loon, [2]
decidedly paler overall (head & paler scallopy back), [3] bill length and
shape (comparatively longer and *straight* along the culmen, uniformly ivory
to cream colored becoming yellowish towards the distal half, thus giving the
appearance as a thinner and longer bill than a Common and held in an
'upturned' posture similar to the much smaller Red-throated Loon with the head
tilted up slightly which further accentuates this 'upturned' look), [4] head
(double peaked slightly and paler than Common but not really possessing a
distinct auricular spot which is overly emphasized in most field guides;
rather this auricular area is only slightly darker and more diffuse -- a
little more evident and noticeable when viewed at a distance because of the
contrast and distance but which in reality is quite diffuse and subtle when
studied up close), and [5] the eye (a little known or mentioned feature which
in fact is noticeably 'smaller' than in Common Loon).

Next stop, a staked-out WILLET at the at the foot of the Tsawwassen Jetty. I
swear this bird must have had an invisible string attached to it! :-))
Initially seen amongst the driftwood log pile and other tidal crud piled up in
the NE corner of the beach. Shortly thereafter, it flew off, circled around
over the water a couple of times giving everyone long and great looks at the
distinctive wing pattern, and then rather than just going off and landing
anywhere else along the miles of vacant beach, came straight back in to alight
on a small piece of driftwood right in front of us a few meters offshore! Oh
please; stop it already!! :-)) -- Okay everyone; back on the bus :-))

Next stop; the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary on Westham Island in
the Fraser River delta. Primary targets, Long-eared and Saw-whet Owls. I,
having never been to this site before, Reifel is definitely one very
interesting if not at least somewhat bizarre birding site. I must say bizarre
and a bazaar for birding '-) Everything is so tame here, almost open zoo-like
and includes wild birds often hard to find elsewhere, much less see up close
and yet are strangely undisturbed by the hordes of visitors. Some even
exceptionally enhanced by the throngs like the gazillions of Mallards which
one literally steps on and trips over all along the trails and the Black-
capped Chickadees and Rock Doves which feed out of your hand enhanced even
further with little bird feeding stations all over the place.

Perhaps the funniest residents are the three Sandhill Cranes which have become
fixated on people and will even follow you around. One in particular decided
to join the group for the walk to the Long-eared Owl site. He's a bit
aggressive even and took his place right in the middle of the group on the
trail and keeping stride, and I often had to glance over my shoulder to warn
off getting 'goosed' by this precocious little beast.

John Ireland (is this correct?) led us into a closed portion of the sanctuary
where 4 LONG-EARED OWLS have a winter roost in a dense tangle of scrubby
hawthorn, brambles, and other brushy stuff. John spotted one owl almost
immediately, how I shall never know. The bird wasn't exactly cooperative, but
with the aid of considerable imagination to fill in all the little parts which
couldn't be seen, a breast feather here, a portion of a facial disk there, and
so on and that the bird turned it's head once in awhile, one could in fact
sort of 'imagine' that we were seeing a Long-eared Owl. Talk about cryptic --
take it to the max! I had no idea that a 'west side' Long-eared Owl roost
would be in such a dense tangle of this stuff. With that in mind, it gives me
some 'new' ideas on where to look for the south Lake Sammamish Long-eared Owl
which seems to roost far less in the pine grove across from the Issaquah Cosco
than somewhere else. Considering the Long-eared Owl's wintering habitat
preference at Reifel, there could just as easily be 'hundreds' scattered all
over western Washington in similar never before explored habitats.

Another of those 'weird' Reifel birds was the easy-as-pie SAW-WHET OWL. Oh
give me a break! -- perched and sleeping soundly tucked away on the underside
of a pine bough yet hopelessly conspicuous a right over the trail about 100
meters from the parking lot, only a few feet directly overhead and too close
to focus bins on it from any angle. A couple little mousy squeaks woke this
sleepy-eyed little guy up briefly and long enough to yawn and nibble on it's
foot before dozing off again. Cute.

With the Saw-whet in the bag, it was back on the bus and back to the border
and returning to Mount Vernon by 5pm. Just enough time for a round of thanks
and good-byes to everyone, and off to try and relocate the Snowy Owl(s) at the
'East 90' west of Edison. Initially those owls couldn't be located anywhere
between Edison and the 'West 90'. A few people came and went in quickie
drive-bys before tripping homeward bound. Finally, it was just Bill Price
(from Portland) and me at the 'East 90' as dusk descended into total darkness.
Two Short-eared Owls made an appearance, flying from the north-side dike and
across the road in front of us to forage over the adjacent fields, one even
alighting in the ditch in the corner there beside the road a few meters away.

Then, as that horrible twist of fate happens sometimes, Bill's cell phone rang
in his car. Literally seconds after he'd gone to answer the phone and with
only 6.3 seconds of the faintest of imaginable natural daylight remaining, the
immense snowy white ghost of a SNOWY OWL appeared along the south-side bottom
of the dike hunting and transiting along then disappearing. I was yelling
"Here it is, Snowy Owl, Snowy Owl..." but somehow Bill didn't hear me or the
phone call was way too good '-) Anyway, it was there and gone in an instant.
I had only one more momentary glimpse in virtual darkness before it was gone
for good. We stayed on for another 30 minutes or so intermittently searching
for it with my 1-million candle power spot light to no avail as the owl(s)
could have likely been anywhere by then over the many square miles of the
Skagit.

If Jan and Keith Wiggers are reading this, I think it would be fair to add
Short-eared Owl to the conference list now as it was otherwise missed and
since there were at least two of us 'die-hard' attendees still pushing the
envelope to the bitter end. I think the total 5-day species count was
probably up around 130-135 or so but I don't have an official tally at hand.

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
(DEAD! -- from the 10th Annual WOS Conference, Mt. Vernon, WA)