Subject: Quilcene Bay at noon, Wednesday 9/2...
Date: Sep 2 21:42:25 1998
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

Had a quick circle of Quilcene Bay in Jefferson County from 10 a.m.
to about 2 p.m. I stopped at the mouth of the Big Quilcene River
for a walk from the mouth, upstream about 250 yards.

Being's it was noon, there wasn't a whole lot of bird activity and
movement. Saw the following:

Bald Eagle - 2 adults at head of Bay
Glaucous-winged Gulls
Mew Gull - a couple
Bonaparte's Gull - about 35 at river mouth
Red-necked Grebe - still in bright red plumage, near Pt Whitney
Mallard - flight of 3 birds
Common Merganser
Canada Goose - all appeared to be B.c. moffitti
Great Blue Heron - a couple along shore
Dunlin - 3 near river mouth
Killdeer - 3 on gravel bars at river mouth
Steller's Jay
Crows - ubiquitous
Yellow Warbler - 1 in willows at mouth of river
Warbling Vireo - 1 " " " " " "
Cedar Waxwing - flock of 15 " "
Western Flycatcher 1 in willows at river mouth
Song Sparrow -- 1 " "
Black-capped Chickadees - small group " "
Barn Swallows - several at Pt Whitney

Lots of harbor seals. A few coho salmon and starry flounder. A
lot of summer chum salmon. "Hamma Hamma Oyster Co. is closed
Wednesdays beginning Sept 2" (shameless plug for business with
which I am not connected....)

In a pasture just south of the Pt Whitney road near Jackson Cove,
the landowner was irrigating the field with head-and-riser sprinklers.
Underneath each of the sprinkler heads were about 30 domestic
geese and a few Canadas. My companion in the truck asked "Why
is the farmer irrigating those geese?".

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net