This report was mailed for Doug Canning by http://birdnotes.net

Date: March 23, 2001
Location: Kennedy Creek Estuary, Mason County, Washington

Temperature: 6 to 20 degrees celsius.
Wind direction: NE
Prevailing wind speed: < 1 km/h gusting to: 6-11 km/h
Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 0%
Precipitation: none

Here today twice: 0754 to 0822 while the tide was falling from 11.5'
to 10.4', and 1324 to 1550 while the tide was rising from 6.8' to
12.1' (Burns Point gage). In the morning I figured the tides wrong and
arrived too late to catch the shorebirds on the upper tideflats (plus
the view was strongly back-lit). In the afternoon I got it just right.
The birds, especially the shorebirds, were moving back-and-forth
between Kennedy Creek Estuary and the nearby Schneider Creek Estuary;
the census information reflects my highest count for Kennedy Creek
Estuary. All-in-all, a delightfully balmy afternoon lazing around on
the high salt marsh.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Great Blue Heron 2 [1]
Mallard 4 [2]
Northern Pintail 6 [3]
Green-Winged Teal 22 [4]
Common Goldeneye 3 [5]
Common Merganser 2 [6]
Black-bellied Plover 2 [7]
Killdeer 1
Greater Yellowlegs 5 [8]
Dunlin 900 [9]
Long-billed Dowitcher 2 [10]
Mew Gull 150
Glaucous-winged Gull 2
Unidentified gull
Belted Kingfisher 1 [11]
American Crow 5
European Starling 20
Song Sparrow 1

Footnotes:

[1] Seen only in late afternoon.
[2] All paired.
[3] Same numbers am and pm.
[4] Seen only in late afternoon.
[5] 3 females only in late afternoon.
[6] 1 pair only in late afternoon.
[7] Same numbers am and pm.
[8] Same numbers am and pm.
[9] Numbers present on Kennedy Creek estuary highly variable.
[10] Seen only in morning.
[11] Heard.

Total number of species seen: 18


****************
Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at igc.org
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