Hi Tweeters:
Yesterday a group of us went on a field trip to the Anacortes area. We
started at Washington Park at Anacortes. What a great place. It's out at
the point overlooking Rosario Strait. The gate was closed to the road
around the point until 10AM. Since we were there early, we started walking
to the nearest point, Green Point. Golden-crowned Kinglets were all around
us. At one point, we looked down at a flock of them bathing in some tide
pools. They they flew to within 5 feet of us as they dried themselves off.
We looked down at their beautiful golden crowns. 8 Harlequin Ducks swam in
the waters right below us. Out at Green Pt, we looked down at Marbled
Murrelets, and Common Murres. Then we walked back to the car, and continued
on the road in Washington Park. Where the road does a sharp bend to the
left we stopped. We were between Green Pt and Fidalgo Head. We walked out
about two blocks on a little muddy trail that said it was 0.06 miles long ??
It goes up and down along the bluff, as you overlook the Rosario Strait from
the headland. We heard two TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRES calling to each other
nearby and had a beautiful view of one of them in the top of a stunted fir
tree.
After leaving Anacortes, we went to March's Point which is east of
Anacortes. We drove past all the refineries. There were not large numbers
of ducks, but we saw a few Long-tailed Ducks (Oldsquaw) in the distance. It
was high tide, and hundreds of Dunlin were on the rocks and on a little
point near the road.
In the afternoon, we traveled south across the Skagit Flats and stopped at
Fir Island. There was a small flock or Tundra Swans on Maupin Road, and a
flock of several thousand Snow Geese on Fir Island between the new refuge
and Wilie Road. We could not drive close to the flock but every once in
awhile, the whole flock would fly, and you could see and hear them from
miles away.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines
linusq at worldnet.att.net