Subject: Eurasian Wigeon high count, Falcated Duck
Date: Feb 24 20:45:45 2002
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com


Tweeters:

For Eur. Wigeon anyway, the Padilla Bay CBC (I believe) had the state
record-high of 256 birds (I recall that figure on the tally sheet) on one of
the counts around '97-98. Sequim-Dungeness has had better-than-average
numbers also but never has come close to that figure.

Falcated Duck: Anne Winskie and I also attempted to find the bird for the
first half of Saturday. I share the opinion that this should be a wild
bird, although as such it is quite remarkable, given that the species ranges
no further north, in the closest breeding area, than north Kamchatka, and is
infrequent on the peninsula generally (and I managed just two sightings, but
they become more common southward). The species visits a range of fresh
water habitats, such as steppe sloughs, marshes and open lakes; they also
frequent muddy, shallow bays. One has to think that among the
possibilities, the bird could have just flown off into the endless expanses
of Padilla Bay or over to Alice Bay, there's plenty of private waterfront
not readily accessible...

At Samish, though we could not find the duck or the previously-reported Mt.
Bluebird, but we did have two W. SANDPIPERS in with Dunlin near the Samish
River bridge (well short of Patrick's number; notably, the Padilla Bay CBC
lists a stunning high of 1557, along with 15,000+ Dunlins). I spotted a
SHORT-EARED OWL near the W-90 and we had HARLAN'S HAWKS in three different
sites north of Rt 20, along with a range of other raptors. Although we were
unable to find Glaucous Gull (it has not seemed much of a year for them),
the "gulling" was pretty good, with at least 6 species present on the wet
fields, a potential Herring was just a bit too far off.

Here in Lake Stevens two early returning WOOD DUCKS were of note on Friday
at the dinner hour, and there were two REDPOLLS in overflight today. Our
HERMIT THRUSH was singing several times this morning, and many others have
joined in, including HUTTON'S VIREO.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
email: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

>From: ian paulsen <ipaulsen at krl.org>
>Reply-To: ipaulsen at krl.org
>To: Steven Mlodinow <SGMlod at aol.com>
>CC: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: Eurasian Wigeon high count
>Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 11:15:57 -0800 (PST)
>
>HI steve et al.:
> What is the high count of Eurasian Wigeon in WA State?? How about
>"Eurasian" Green-winged Teal?? On Falcated Duck, maybe its owner came by
>and took it back home!!
>
>Ian Paulsen
>Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
>ipaulsen at krl.org
>A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
>"Rallidae all the way"
>


_________________________________________________________________
Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com