Today I birded with family members from Ohio, Idaho and Montana, who are
visiting for the holidays. (Honest, they really wanted to go birding!) Our
first stop was for the Gyrfalcon, just south of the Pilchuck River bridge,
south of Snohomish. No Gyr. Less than a mile north of the bridge we had a
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, RED-TAILED HAWK, BALD EAGLES (2), NORTHERN HARRIER, and a
PEREGRINE FALCON, all within about 15-20 minutes.

Next stop was Big Ditch for Snowy Owls. Ran into Linda Wakeman and Robert
Rhodes. They shared a PRAIRIE FALCON with us. We enjoyed 2 (and most likely
3) SNOWY OWLS as the light began to fade. We watch one Snowy perched on a
piling as a falcon (the Prairie?) buzzed it several times. We also watched
the Snowy Owl hunt. At one point it was in hot pursuit of a sparrow-sized
bird that got away.

Other birds at Big Ditch included:
VIRGINIA RAIL
AMERICAN BITTERN
SONG SPARROW
TRUMPETER SWAN
NORTHERN HARRIER
BALD EAGLE

It was a good day.
Happy Holidays!

Marv Breece
Seattle, WA
206-634-1725