Hey Tweets. Today I went on a field trip led by Jim Flynn to the general
Sequim Bay area. We made stops at the John Wayne Marina, The 3 Crabs, Point
No Point, etc. We had a very good day (especially considering the awful,
rainy conditions!), although no rarities were seen. Had a truly amazing
number of geese, which really surprised us. Here's the list of the birds we
saw/heard during the day:

Highlights are capitalized.
** note at the end.

1. Common Loon - 30
2. Red-throated Loon - 1
3. Western Grebe - 3
4. Horned Grebe - 18
5. Red-necked Grebe - 4
6. Pelagic Cormorant - 25
7. Double-crested Cormorant - 100
8. Great-blue Heron - 20
9. Turkey Vulture - 1
10. GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE - 1,800+ (!!!!!) **
Greylag Goose - 7
11. Canada Goose - 30 canadensis-type; 1,250+ MINIMA (CACKLERS) **
12. Green-winged Teal - 100
13. Mallard - 50
14. Northern Shoveler - 40
15. Gadwall - 5
16. Northern Pintail - 125
17. American Wigeon - 1,000
18. EURASIAN WIGEON - 2 **
19. Lesser Scaup
20. Greater Scaup
Scaup spp. 2,000+ ** (probably mostly Greater)
21. White-winged Scoter - 6
22. Surf Scoter - 6
23. Harlequin Duck - 5
24. Common Merganser - 1 female
25. Hooded Merganser - 10
26. Bald Eagle - 2 adults
27. Northern Harrier - 3 imm/female
28. Red-tailed Hawk - 5
29. Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
30. American Coot - 20
31. Black-bellied Plover - 25
32. Killdeer - 35
33. Least Sandpiper - 10
34. Western Sandpiper - 70
35. Black Turnstone - 1
36. Common Snipe - 8
37. Long-billed Dowitcher - 12
38. PECTORAL SANDPIPER - 5 **
39. Greater Yellowlegs - 15
40. MARBLED GODWIT 23 **
41. Bonaparte's Gull - 60
42. Mew Gull - 45
43. Ring-billed Gull - 10
44. California Gull - 1,000
45. Glaucous-winged Gull & hybrids - 400
46. Western Gull - 2
47. Heerman's Gull - 500
48. Common Tern - 80 **
49. Parasitic Jaeger - 8 **
50. Rhinocerous Auklet - 3
51. Pigeon Guillemot - 40
52. Common Murre - 45
53. Band-tailed Pigeon - 2
54. Rock Dove - 75
55. Belted Kingfisher - 12
56. Northern Flicker - 5
57. American Crow
58. Northwestern Crow
Crow spp. 75
59. Common Raven - 6
60. Steller's Jay - 2
61. Violet-green Swallow - 35
62. Chestnut-backed Chickadee - 4
63. Winter Wren - 2
64. Marsh Wren - 1
65. Bewick's Wren - 2
66. Golden-crowned Kinglet - 14
67. American Robin - 35
68. European Starling - 300
69. Song Sparrow - 4
70. Savannah Sparrow - 10
71. LINCOLN'S SPARROW - 2 **
72. White-crowned Sparrow - 1
73. Spotted Towhee - 3
74. Dark-eyed Junco - 5
75. Brewer's Blackbird - 70
76. Red-winged Blackbird - 40
77. Brown-headed Cowbird - 1
78. House Finch - 50
79. American Goldfinch - 11
80. Pine Sisken - 2
81. House Sparrow - 20

Notes:

Greater White-fronted Geese absolutely filled the sky with their squeaky
cackling. We estimate around 1800 were seen migrating by to the South. Some
landed in areas but most we flying at amazing height, a couple flocks easily
a mile up. We never expected to see this many!

The "Cackling" Canadas were often mixed in with the White-fronts, in smaller
but still very, very large numbers. It seems a bit early for such large
numbers of Cacklers, does anyone know?

At 3 Crabs there were 2 partially eclipse plumaged males in with about 500
Americans. Also notable here were 2 Gadwall.

Scaups, scaups, scaups. Both species, many more Greater than Lesser. This was
by far the largest congregation of scaups I've ever seen. Most were just too
far out to identify and the flocks were so densely packed that you could
hardly tell one bird from another.

Pectoral Sandpipers were seen at the Horse Ponds near 3 Crabs and at Sequim
Bay.

23 Marbled Godwits were on the beach at 3 Crabs, strange for this location.

Common Terns were all over the place at Point No Point.

On the way to Sequim we took the Kingston/Edmonds ferry and observed quite a
few Parasitic Jaegers chasing around the terns and Bonaparte's Gulls also
seen.

2 Lincoln Sparrows were seen in the lupine near the Horse Ponds at 3 Crabs,
with some Savannah Sparrows.

Good Birding!

http://hometown.aol.com/birdking88/index.html
Birdking88 at aol.com
Charlie W. Wright
Sumner, WA
Age 12