Tweeters:

Just returned from a family outing to Sequim last night, had the mornings to
walk the Graysmarsh beach. Dawn and shortly thereafter on April 6 were
super, with sparkling sunshine and still waters; birds were all over the
place.

The best find was a 2nd-winter ICELAND GULL that turned up amid a gull flock
following two boats pulling up Dungeness crab (apparently commercially,
given the pot quantities) from inshore waters, about mid-beach. When this
bird flew into the melee by the boats, showing off translucent white
primaries from below, I at first assumed Glaucous (and far off, earlier,
there had been a possible Glaucous). But when the bird landed on the water
next to a Thayer's, it was plainly too small, and had a nicely rounded, pure
white head and pale eye, and a bicolored, short bill with a light
orangish-pink basal half and black smudgy tip (the break between the light
and dark parts was not as crisply defined as on Glaucous). This was a
long-winged (primary extension well past tail tip), mostly all-white gull,
except the secondaries had faint brown speckling, and the primary tips from
above were similarly washed with an indistinct light brown. The
back/scapulars also had a wash of very light brown, but there was also a
hint of light grayish here as well.

And there were other good birds on the public beach access: a PACIFIC
GOLDEN-PLOVER joined a group of a dozen or so Black-bellied Plovers. This
bird was silent, but was observed twice in flight as well as while feeding
at the shore's edge, along the beach north. Last but not least among the
rarities, there were two MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS flycatching from the driftwood
in the dunes, first seen near the north end of the beach and later seen at
the south end. This was about the 4th record for the site, all from late
March-early April.

I returned briefly on the 7th, the weather and birding were much less
favorable. The only highlight was an arrival COM. YELLOWTHROAT heard
singing inside the marsh. On both the 6th and 7th, widespread arrival of
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS was also apparent.

Other birds that seemed to be on the move on April 6 included numerous
groups of Brant totalling about a 1000 birds; 21 Great Blue Herons over the
back part of the marsh; about 80 Red-breasted Mergansers; and a Greater
Yellowlegs. There were also 27 ELK just south of Graysmarsh along the west
side of Schmuck Rd., at the far edge of the field bordering the woodlands on
the ridge.

Also, on the 7th, we had an unidentified buteo, sp. perched on the north
side of Hwy 101 quite close to the Dungeness River and highway. The breast
was dark reddish-marked and the tail was dark brown, the same color as the
rest of the upperparts, but we were unable at freeway speed to detect
anything else and there were cars behind; the bird had left by the time were
were able to return. The bird was perched on a short post, close to the
ground, and was upright in posture.


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






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