I led a Seattle Audubon field trip to Spencer Island today, and we saw many of
the same things. We were able to identify the swallows as BARN SWALLOWS - is
this my imagination, or is this an astonishingly late date?

I'm sure we saw the RED-SHOULDERED HAWK too, though none of us were able to
identify it at the time. It flew level with a flap-flap-flap-glide pattern,
had a jizz about half-way between Buteo and Accipiter, had a light-colored
patch just in from the primaries in flight. I *knew* I didn't know what it
was. It flew from the south into the trees north of the barn. Having now
looked in my hawk books, I have no doubt.

The two PEREGRINE FALCON gave a great show chasing each other at one point,
then posing in the dead trees at the east end of the cross-dike trail. There
were also two BALD EAGLES there, and a HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK. We had both
COOPER'S HAWK and SHARP-SHINNED, (plus the many HARRIERS) making for an
excellent raptor day.

On the sewage ponds, we had hundreds of RUDDY DUCK, approximately 100
CANVASBACK, and perhaps 30 RING-NECKED DUCK.

Other species we saw, and not on the list below were:

Double-crested Cormorant
Cinnamon Teal (one male)
Hooded Merganser (two females)
Virginia Rail (heard only)
Western Sandpiper (flyby - ID uncertain)
Common Snipe (2)
Steller's Jay
Bushtit
Cedar Waxwing
Red-winged Blackbird (only 1 male)
Brewer's Blackbird

We missed the Bittern though. And the ONLY gulls were Glaucous-winged, Mew,
and Bonapartes. Nary a Ring-billed, nor a California, and nothing unusual
among hundreds.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== hummer at isomedia.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Yvonne Bombardier" <ravenn at premier1.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 3:06 PM
Subject: Snohomish Co. Red-shouldered Hawk


> Yesterday Steve Mlodinow told me about a Red-shouldered Hawk he saw on
> Spencer Island. Today I relocated the bird in a grove of trees North of
> the Barn on the west side of the Island. A Northern Harrier harrassed
> the bird so I was able to get a good look at the beautiful markings on
> its back and wings. I was on the island from around 10:00am until
> 1:00pm and observed the bird off and on during that time. At one point
> it flew around with a Red-tailed Hawk always landing in the same trees
> as the RT. It called out several times during the day
>
> Other observations included:
>
> Pied-billed Grebe
> American Bittern--2
> Great Blue Heron
> Swans--four flew over the island
> Canada Goose
> Green-winged Teal
> Mallard
> Northern Pintail
> Northern Shoveler
> Gadwall
> American Wigeon
> Bufflehead
> Ruddy Duck
> Bald Eagle
> Northern Harrier--6 or more
> Red-tailed Hawk--10 or more
> Peregrine Falcon--2
> American Coot
> Long-billed Dowitcher
> Bonaparte's Gull
> Mew Gull
> Glaucous-winged Gull
> Belted Kingfisher
> Downy Woodpecker
> Pileated Woodpecker
> American Crow
> Swallow sp-- a pair were flying over the Marsh but too far for me to
> identify species
> Black-capped Chickadee
> Bewick's Wren
> Marsh Wren
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet
> American Robin
> European Starling
> Spotted Towhee
> Savannah Sparrow
> Fox Sparrow
> Song Sparrow
> House Finch
> American Goldfinch
>
> That's it.
> Yvonne Bombardier
> Everett Wa
> ravenn at premier1.net
>