Tweeters,

I usually just read the post on tweeters and have
only posted once before. I am new to the Washington
area (since last August) and am still acclimating
myself to the birds of this region. I am originally
for Central Texas.

Since moving to the Whatcom County area I have been
visiting Lummi Flats on a regular basis (mostly to
view ducks, gulls etc.) I have been meaning to post
some of my siting on Tweeters but usually forget to
make the posts(i haven't seen anything extraordinary
I assure you). Here are some of the highlights from
last week and today.

Last week out in lummi bay i observed a single
Red-necked Grebe, and 3 Caspian Terns, and i am still
seeing Brants out in the middle of Lummi Bay.

Out in the marshy grassland area between the dike
and Hillare(sp?) Road, I saw on two occasions a
American Bittern, a regular Short-eared Owl and
Northern Shoveler. Did not see the Bittern or
Shoveler this morning. There are very few hawks in
the area now, just the regular Northern Harriers.

I usually visit a location off the reservation that
has been a stopping area for a few Shorebirds. This
morning I stopped there (along Lampman Road near the
Olson Road turn) and observed about 50 shorebirds in
the small wetland area. There were several
Semipalmated Plovers, several Dunlin, and the rest was
a mixture of Western and Least Sandpipers. While
observing the peeps I noticed some interesting
Blackbirds flying over the pond. Those black birds
turned out to be Yellow-headed Blackbirds. They
landed in some reeds near a ditch on the edge of the
field i was observing. The question i have is how
common are Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the Whatcom
County area? This is the first observation of
Yellow-headed Blackbirds in this area for me. I
never
saw any last summer when i just arrived here in
Whatcom County.

Thanks for your indulgence
Dwayne Rogers
Whatcom County
Blaine

PS -- I also observed a pair of Western Grebes in
Birch Bay Just as you enter Birch Bay State Park