On Saturday afternoon (2/16) about 2:00 p.m., there was a mixed
flock of 8 SURFBIRDS and about 35 SANDERLINGS just south (i.e., a few yards)
of the Alki Point lighthouse in West Seattle. I usually see the Surfbirds
more segregated from the Sanderlings, but they were totally mixing together
on the 16th.
Other Alki Point winter notes: 1 -- Brant numbers are consistently
and considerably down. 2 -- A couple weeks ago, I had the pretty unusual
treat of seeing pairs all three SCOTERS (SURF, WHITE-WINGED, and BLACK) very
close together -- so close that I could often get all three species in the
same binoc view. They were across from the old sewage treatment plant just
south of Alki Point. Usually SURF SCOTERS are by far the most common Scoter
species off Alki Point. On that day there were the usual numerous Surf
Scoters, plus one pair of White-winged and two pairs of Black.

Andrea Grad
Alki
agrad at helsell.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20010219/b22d4c54/attachment.htm