Evening Tweets,

2000 was a year full of amazing birds. I'm hard put to elevate one above the
others since there's the Northern Parula, Palm, Prairie, and Pine Warblers
in Central Florida, the pair of Zenaida Doves on Sanibel Island, all with
Nancy Taylor last March, and my first White-tailed Kites by the Pacific on
UC campus at Santa Barbara in September, among many others. But when it
comes down to it, the bird(s) of the year were about a half mile walk from
my front door, up on the west side of Bellingham's South Hill neighborhood
in late July or early August I believe...a family of black Merlins with four
(!) eyases perched on house rooftops and noisily chasing mom and dad around
the residential streets begging for food. Never thought I'd see such a
sight...a wild falcon family right in the middle of my own home town!

And then, just yesterday morning near first light, doing the Skagit CBC, a
Peregrine cruising at fifty feet above us on its first hunt of the day.
Magical.

All the best birds in '01!

Eyes to the skies,
Joe Mackie
jmackie at cc.wwu.edu
Bellingham