Hi tweets,

I thought I would post a few of the highlights from my
area of the Edmonds CBC yesterday, December 28. The
best was probably a flock of HORNED LARKS in a corn
stubble field on Marsh Road near Snohomish. When I
first arrived there appeared to be about 30-40,
however, after walking the length of the road I
realized there were others in the field as well and
that groups of birds were joining this group and
leaving it, flying to other fields closer to the
river. I returned to this spot two more times,
including finishing the day there. My best guess is
that there are a total of about 80 Horned Larks here
again with groups coming and going I also found some
in a field along the Snohomish River Road (probably
birds that split from the other flock and flew in this
direction). In any event this is the first time they
have been recorded on the CBC and are quite unusual in
this area.

Other highlights:

SORA - 1 calling in the marsh near the railroad tracks
at the end of the Lowell Riverfront Trail

ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER - (my third in as many weeks,
what a streak!) along the railroad tracks at Lowell,
in the blackberries on the hillside.

NORTHERN SHRIKE - we seem to get one every few years
on this count, this year there were two. One was
along the railroad tracks at Lowell and the other was
at a WDFW access to the river on Springhetti Rd, near
the airport.

GYRFALCON - the light colored bird was found near the
end of the day sitting on a manure/dirt pile along
Lowell-Larimer road, between highway 9 and Marsh Road,
in nearly the same spot where one (probably the same
one) was seen on the CBC 3 or 4 years ago.

I believe last night the preliminary number for the
count was 121 species with numbers not in from all of
the areas. Thich is on the high end for recent years.

Michael Dossett
Bothell, WA
Phainopepla at yahoo.com

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