Tweeters,

This is my first posting, so I hope I'm doing this correctly. My son and I followed up on the Short-eared owl sighting of last week by visiting Samish Flats yesterday. Sure enough, we saw three beautiful short-eareds sharing the flats with Northern harriers and bald eagles at dusk.

We also believe we saw a gyrfalcon near the intersection of Bayview Edison and D'Arcy Roads. Has anyone seen a gyrfalcon in those parts recently? I did see one a few years back in this area while on an Audubon field trip.

Finally, we believe we saw a Western tanager, about half-way between non-breeding and breeding plumage high up in a tree at the Skagit Wildlife Area parking lot at the end of Mann Rd, south from Fir Island Road. Could this be?

Ron Rabin
Issaquah, WA
ron at kirlinfoundation.org