Hi tweets,

I've been having some problems with my webhost, but its finally back up. I've also put the Glaucous photo on:
http://christinevadai.home.sprynet.com/glaucous_gull.jpg

I returned to the Samish area with Rahne yesterday afternoon to try once again for a look at the Eurasian Kestrel. We got a possible, but not absolutely positive sighting. We saw what we estimated was a merlin-sized falcon flying over a field close to us off Field Road, too big and pale for an American, too red for a Merlin.

We also found the juvenile Prairie Falcon, and the adult gray Gyrfalcon (getting an extremely good look at it while it sat and stared at us from the powerpole), as well as the three other falcons.

Driving by Conway, we found the same Snow Geese in the same field as before, only this time they were feeding right next to the road! Wednesday, these birds would have been sharing the same single pixel from our vantage point:
http://christinevadai.home.sprynet.com/snow_goose.jpg

One of the Peregrines is on:
http://christinevadai.home.sprynet.com/peregrine_falcon.jpg

A *very* grainy shot of the Gyrfalcon is on:
http://christinevadai.home.sprynet.com/gyrfalcon.jpg (Well, hey, it was almost dark!)

Good birding and happy new year,

Christine Vadai
Mill Creek, WA
christinevadai at sprynet.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Deborah Wisti-Peterson [SMTP:nyneve at u.washington.edu]
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 1999 12:23 AM
To: christinevadai at sprynet.com
Subject: skagit flats and padilla bay, 29 dec 1999 (LONG) (fwd)


hello tweeters.

despite the cold and grey day today, christine and i spent most
of the daylight hours combing the skagit flats in search of the
eurasian kestrel and we also briefly birded padilla bay. despite
the crummy weather and the absence of the eurokest, we found 66
species that easily represent more than 100,000 total individual
birds observed on this amazing day.

the first impressive sight that we saw were the tens of thousands
of snow geese that shrouded the green and brown fields like a white
down quilt. as we watched the antics of individual birds through
the 'scope, dozens and often hundreds more geese poured down from
the blue-grey skies above us, their soft and mournful cries carried
on the icy breezes across the fields to us. eight "dusky" canada
circled and then touched down while we watched, their small dark
shapes swallowed by the brilliant vibrating blanket of snow.

we found another vantage point where we could make another estimate
of the flock size, and found a single ross's goose standing apart
in the field from the expanding flock of snow geese. several snow
geese occasionally wandered nearby, almost as if they were checking
up on their petite companion.

while we were watching the ross's goose, i noticed a large dark
cloud in the distance. wondering if we should expect an unexpected
downpour from the heavens, i watched this undulating cloud intently
for perhaps half a minute before realizing that this was a flock of
birds. excited, we trained the 'scope upon this cloud and watched
more than 30,000 dunlin "crack the whip" against the steel-grey sky.

these dunlin looked like they were near padilla bay, so we drove
there, hoping to locate this crowd of birds for closer observation.
we did not locate this particular group of dunlin, but we did find
that padilla bay was liberally dotted with many thousands of american
wigeon and pintail ducks stretching out as far as our eyes, binoculars
and 'scope could see. we also found many mallards (on salt water, wow!)
along with buffleheads and a few still-elegant winter-plumaged common
and red-throated loons. surprisingly, we managed to locate a eurasian
wigeon in the crowd before half a dozen bald eagles sailed over the
bay towards us, stirring things up.

we then returned to the skagit flats, hoping to finally locate the
eurasian kestrel, but alas, without any luck. we did manage to get
very good looks at a single northern shrike and a single western
meadowlark as they sat on the powerlines next to the roadways, and
we also picked out a red-winged blackbird from a large crowd of
brewer's blackbirds sitting next to a male american kestrel on the
powerlines. earlier in the day, we located three male american
kestrels in the blueberry farms, one of which was sitting on the
powerlines next to the road, eating the biggest and wiggliest
nightcrawler that i've seen in a long time.

as the shadows started to lengthen, we started back to our fair city,
using the backroads in the hope that we might accidentally find the
eurokest. instead, we saw the biggest, palest gull that we'd seen all
day, walking across an empty horse paddock next to the road. excited,
we managed to park in less than five seconds without running over
anyone or driving into a ditch, gathered up 15 pounds of scopes,
cameras and binoculars and hauling them with us down the narrow
shoulder of the road so we could get a better look at "our" glaucous
gull as it fed greedily upon everything that would fit down its throat.
luckily, christine managed to get several photographs of this bird so
we could show them to you. these pictures will probably be developed
by tomorrow and may be scanned and accessible on christine's
webpage shortly.

overall, this was a wonderful day. in fact, this was one of the very
best days that i have experienced during all of 1999 which, as some
of you may recall, has been a very difficult year for me (i broke my
wrist in jan 1999 and then underwent surgery to fix it. i have almost
regained complete use of my right hand after 10 months of partial or
total loss of function). so as i look back upon this year, and forward
to the new millenium, i realize what a rare and beautiful gift this
day has been, an adventure in time that i will always treasure.

we saw 66 species today (not counting hybrids), totalling more than
100,000 individual birds. our bird list follows, for those of you who
haven't fallen asleep already;

pb= padilla bay
estp = everett sewage treatment ponds
sf = skagit flats

# = unusual bird sightings for this area
* = new to my USA and WA state lists

red-throated loon (2 or more) -- pb
common loon (4 or more) -- pb
pied-billed grebe -- estp
double-crested cormorant, adults and immatures
black-crowned night-heron, 1 adult -- sf
great blue heron, many
#trumpeter swan, 48 -- sf
#ross's goose, 1 -- sf
#snow goose, 30,000+ -- sf
#"dusky" canada geese, 8 -- sf
mallard, ~2000
gadwall
american wigeon, 10,000+ -- mostly pb
eurasian wigeon -- pb
northern pintail, ~8,000-10,000 -- mostly pb
northern shoveler -- estp
ring-necked duck -- estp
greater scaup -- estp
lesser scaup -- estp
bufflehead
red-breasted merganser -- pb
ruddy duck -- pb and estp
northern harrier, 30+ -- sf
#golden eagle, 1 -- sf
bald eagle, 20+
red-tailed hawk, 35+
#"harlan's" hawk, 2 -- sf
rough-legged hawk, ~10
american kestrel, 4 male -- sf
peregrine falcon, 2 -- sf
merlin, 1 -- sf
american coot
killdeer -- sf
dunlin, 40,000+ -- sf
ring-billed gull
california gull
*glaucous gull, 1 -- sf
western gull
"olympic" gull
glaucous-winged gull
rock dove
#mourning dove, 8-10 -- sf
# short-eared owl, 2-3 -- sf
belted kingfisher, 1 male -- pd
northern (red-shafted) flicker
downy woodpecker
#northern shrike, 1 -- sf
steller's jay
american crow
common raven -- pb
black-capped chickadee
bushtit
marsh wren
ruby-crowned kinglet
american robin, hundreds
european starling
spotted towhee
song sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
golden-crowned sparrow
dark-eyed "oregon" junco
#western meadowlark, 1 -- sf
red-winged blackbird -- sf
brewer's blackbird, thousands -- sf
house finch
pine siskin, many dozens -- pb
english (house) sparrow, bazillions

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
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