Hello, tweeters.

Yesterday (10 December 2001) Netta and I wandered around the Samish and
Skagit Flats, with the double mission of looking for redpolls and getting
out of the house on a
beautiful sunny day (other than the downpour as we passed through
Everett). We saw two flocks of finchlets land in somewhat distant birch
trees on Samish Island, and in both of them I was fairly sure there were
redpolls from a quick binocular scan. But in both cases when I got out of
the car to set up the scope, I looked up and they were gone, never to
return. Utter frustration. It was easy to see they were redpolls or
siskins, as there were House Finches in both trees for size comparison; the
finches didn't leave with their flighty relatives.

Highlight of the day was an immature Gyrfalcon on a power pole on Samish
Island Road just north of the West 90. It was sufficiently tame to allow
great photo opportunities, I suspect my best Gyr photos ever. I've got my
fingers crossed about the flight shots.

The other highlight was the flocks of Dunlins in the same area that were
put up by a Peregrine and gyrated around the sky for more than a half
hour, with dazzling shape changes among sphere, blob, long drawn-out line,
vertical column, and all shapes inbetween. With the elongate shapes, you
could really see the waves moving through the flock, while when they were
spheroid, it really did look as if all birds wheeled at once. Just as
magical as Harry Potter, which we saw last night, and I could envision
Dunlins being great at Quidditch.

I had never seen as many ravens on the Samish Flats as we did today,
dozens of them. I don't know if it was a special occasion or if they are
just increasing in that area.

The negative evidence that surprised me most was the total lack of ducks
on the Samish Flats and Padilla Bay, and I mean zilch, zero, not a single
duck in all the flooded fields. However, there were thousands and
thousands of them way out on Samish Bay, north of Edison, perhaps keeping
out of harm's way (but other years I've seen the same flocks on Padilla
Bay).

Finally, every year I go up there there are more berry farms, orchards,
and poplar plantations, and I can envision our descendants visiting the
Samish Woods on birding trips. There were Yellow-rumped Warblers in
several places, e.g., at the West 90, where I don't recall seeing them
before, perhaps a consequence of the increasing arboreality.

Dennis

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html