Tweeters:

Although I've already posted Fir I. sightings to Birdbox, thought I'd
augment it with more detail here. Yesterday was a super day to be birding
on Fir Island--the tulip traffic had largely passed and there were hordes of
common (bird) migrants, a few of the less common ones and first arrivals.
The highlight, however, was a subadult RED-SHOULDERED HAWK seen from the
Snow Goose Reserve at about noon. I viewed it from the dike road (right
where the property ends and the screen fence precludes further access
southeast) through the scope/binocs looking out onto the marsh southeast.
The bird was on driftwood initially, but swooped down into the marsh/cattail
growth a couple times, taking a low log and then low bush perch.

The bird was deemed subadult and in probable molt because, although it had
most of the adult features, the face was mostly dark (much like the imm.
bird that stayed at Port of Everett years ago) and the tail, though it had
four narrow white bands visible above, was dark brown, not black, and some
of the primary tips looked a little rough. Yet the wings, shoulders,
nape/scapular, head plumage matched adult plumage, as did behavior and
"gizz". Full details to be submitted elsewhere.

The bird headed southeast toward the game range after a half-hour. There is
only one other report of this species from Skagit County, of a bird Tom
Aversa and Steve Gerstle had soaring over the Skagit WMA Sept. 27, 2001.

For yesterday I had 93 species, about 8 were from our place in Lake Stevens,
the rest from Fir I. There were 11 shorebird species there, not bad for
late April. Highlights:

1. SKAGIT WMA HDQRTS

AM. BITTERN 3 (booming birds heard)
Wood Duck 4
Cinnamon Teal 6
GW Teal 65
Greater Yellowlegs 4
LESSER YELLOWLEGS 1
Dunlin 150
Least Sandpiper 150
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER 1 (breeding plumage)
Com. Snipe 2
M. Dove 3
Great Horned Owl 1 (being mobbed by crows)
all five swallows
Hermit Thrush 2
Am. Pipit 2
OC, YR Warblers and Yellowthroat, numbers of each, several Myrtles in song
YELLOW WARBLER 1 (heard singing with Bob Kuntz)
all six regular sparrows, 1 Lincoln's

(1a. INTERSECTION of WILIE, MANN rds: GREEN HERON)

2. JENSEN

Snow Goose 3
peep--several thousand, mostly Dunlin and Westerns
Black-bellied Plover 75
PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER 1 (calling amid BB Plover flock)
Bonaparte's Gull 1
COM. TERN 2
Am. Pipit 15
Savannah Sparrow 11

3. N. FORK ACCESS

GR. WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Least Sandpiper 75
Saltwater edge peep (hundreds) & scattered BB Plover
PECTORAL SANDPIPER 1 (heard)
Am. Pipit 12

4. SNOW GOOSE PRESERVE (Brown Slough)

Com. Loon 2
Lesser Scaup 4
Com. Merganser 4
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 1 (subadult)
Am. Kestrel 2
Greater Yellowlegs 5
many peep

5. MOORE RD. POND west of Skagit City farm pond

Cinnamon Teal 8
BLUE-WINGED TEAL 2


In addition, like Judy Taylor, we had two Golden-crowned Sparrows at our
feeder yesterday--only our second time. They too seem to be on the move.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com





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