Subject: Skagit County
Date: Feb 24 21:13:31 2002
From: Birdking88 at aol.com - Birdking88 at aol.com


Hey Tweeters,
Just a fairly quick note to say that Scott Downes and I did not find the
Falcated Duck today in the Samish Flats. We only had a couple of highlights
today, including 150+ Eurasian Wigeons during the day, with 95-100 males
(plus 10 females that we could pick out) in Samish Bay. This was at the end
of the day and we parked at the West-90 Parking Lot and walked out to the
dike, about a 2 mile hike round trip through the soggy fields. When we
finally found a spot to get up on the dike, we had views of around 5,000
wigeons out in the bay. The ratio here was 1+ Eurasian for every 15
Americans. This was the highest number either one of us had seen at one spot.
Quite impressive!
The rest of the day was spent scouring the flats for anything. Excellent
weather, but few birds. No Wilson's Warbler at the Allen West Rd "poop
piles." Only 1 Peregrine Falcon the whole day, at the West-90. Only a
scattering of Rough-legged Hawks. A few pipits along Church Road and
Bayview-Edison Road.
The last stop of the day was the Skagit Game Range headquarters, where we
found unexpectedly large numbers of swallows. While the flock was very nearly
impossible to count accurately, we estimate there were 25 Tree Swallows, 15
to 20 Barn Swallows, and 1 or 2 Violet-green Swallows. It should be noted
that all the Barn Swallows were of our American race, and all but 2 or 3 were
juveniles.

Good birding!

Charlie Wright
Birdking88 at aol.com
Sumner, WA