Hello Tweets,

My mother and I birded Snohomish County today, where the weather was very
favorable with partly sunny to partly cloudy skies, and occasional wind, but
NO rain. Our main goal was to search for the ARCTIC LOON at Edmonds along
Water Street, which we located soon after are arrival at 7:45am, where it
was present about 150 yards offshore, as observed through our spotting
scopes and binoculars, as it was seen loosely with 3 Pacific Loons. The bird
was seen only briefly, but good enough for positive identification, as Marv
Breece was also present during the observation, but the bird was very active
feeding, as it dove constantly, then could not be relocated, after 8am, as
more birders were present. Pacific Loons and Red-throated Loons were in
increasing numbers after 8am, as they seem to come in from all directions of
viewing, as were many other waterbird species. The Arctic Loon was
immediately located, as it was noted in loose association with the Pacific
Loons as being larger, and much paler overall, with a very pale face,
throat, and foreneck, with a pale gray crown, nape, and hindneck area, and
darker gray back, with not much contrast than the Pacific Loons, but more on
the scale of a large Red-throated Loon, but not as slender, and delicate,
but the bill posture was as of the latter species, holding it upturned. The
white flank patches were only seen briefly once, as the bird was active
feeding, before its departure. We also returned to the location at 3:30pm,
as most sighting occured in the mid to late afternoon, but the bird could
not be relocated, as searched by several other birders, upon our arrival.

Other notable species that were present during our visits,(mainly the AM
visit) at this location included:

1 LONG-TAILED DUCK(Oldsquaw)
4 HARLEQUIN DUCKS
28 BLACK SCOTERS
17 BARROW'S GOLDENEYES
1 EURASIAN WIGEON
23 SANDERLINGS
1 ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD

At 11am we located the adult gray-morph GYRFALCON along the"old"
Snohomish-Monroe Hwy., as we were joined by Marv Breece and Marvin Cooper,
where it was present perched in two trees, as noted in most of the previous
reports, south of Snohomish, as it flew from tree to tree, then finally to
the east of the highway, and out of sight.

Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net