Hi Tweets

Yesterday, a Seattle Audubon field trip ventured to Whidbey Island. The
day started out nicely with a still in breeding plumage Marbeled
Murrelet sitting and preening relatively close to the fishing dock at
the Mukilteo ferry landing. Gave all excellent scope views. It was
mostly sunny to start with some scattered clouds out to the west. On
Whidbey we made our first stop on Ewing Road, but the wetlands aren't.
Nevertheless we scanned thru the several hundred swallows perched on the
wires with mostly Barn and Violet-green of various ages and plumages. We
had a nice flock of Pine Siskins across the street feeding on some
flowering plants in front of the house. American Goldfinches were
working one of the trees over.

Double-bluff which is usually fairly active was very quiet yesterday
morning - we had a couple of very distant Pigeon Guillemots and one
Common Loon. On the way back out we stopped on the bend where you can
scan the ponds and had Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintail and Mallard.
A Brown Creeper crawled up the trunk of the Douglas Fir behind us, and
across the road the shrubs, flowers and trees were alive with hordes of
American Goldfinches, Bushtits, House Finches and a couple of immature
Black-headed Grosbeaks flew through. As we drove out to the highway
there was a dead female Mallard exactly on the centerline of the road.

There were lots of fisherman at Bush Point and a few birds. Some Common
Murres gave us fleeting glimpses between diving and then flying away,
but several Rhinoceros Auklets put on a good show with lots of preening.
More Pigeon Guillemots were also present.

At Crockett Lake we followed the "trail" out thru the thistles to the
edge of the lake. The shorebirds were waaaay down toward the center of
the lake, so we made our way down there stopping to look at a soaring
immature Northern Harrier (no wing tags) on the way. We got close enough
for some half-way decent views of an assemblage of almost exclusively
Western Sandpipers (at least one Least Sandpiper). There were quite a
few Greater Yellowlegs present but no Lessers. There were Semipalmated
Plovers and at least three Wilson's Phalaropes. All of the shorebirds
were rather spooky, even though no falcon was spotted. Finally a group
of dowitchers came in close enough to start to identify them - it looked
like almost all Long-billed with maybe a couple of Short-billeds. Most
of the shorebirds remained too distant to identify, other than there
were lots of peeps. Quite the contrast with the WOS trip on Aug 7th when
the birds were all close and very cooperative with much larger variety.
We talked to a couple of other birders as we made our way back out (with
the first sprinkles) and they reported that they had some Least
Sandpipers and a couple of Dunlin on the road side of the lake. By the
time we made our way around to the road all the shorebirds had moved way
back to the north side of the lake.

We moved up to Fort Casey for lunch as the clouds moved in and it was
very quiet, with no bird sounds and almost no activity other than some
swallows overhead. As we got back into our cars to go down to the bluffs
it started raining. The wind and rain were hard enough, and the lack of
birds on the water earlier made us decide to check out some other spots.
The boat launch by the sewer plant in Coupeville was entirely devoid of
birds. Kennedy Lagoon had three or four Greater Yellowlegs.

We hit the jackpot at the pier at San de Fuca. The beach was loaded with
rocky shorebirds - there must have been 150-170 Black Turnstones,
perhaps 100 Surfbirds and two Ruddy Turnstones. We spent considerable
time studying them in spite of the rain. We next went out to Libby
Beach, and a brief break in the rain. As we pulled up we had at least 7
Harlequin Ducks just offshore. A couple of Surf Scoters were a bit
further out, and many Red-necked Grebes.

At the Hastie Lake launch we had two Surf Scoters close in, and not much
else - it was raining again and was serious by then. We stopped at the
bluff parking lot at Swantown and there wasn't much visible (which was
limited anyway). Across the road, Bos Lake was almost empty of birds. A
few Western Sandpipers and a few California Gulls were there. By this
time the rain had settled in and we finished for the day.

A fairly good day, 66 species, given the weather.

Brian Bell
Woodinville Wa
bellasoc at isomedia.com

Common Loon 2
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Red-necked Grebe 12
Double-crested Cormorant 6
Pelagic Cormorant 8
Great Blue Heron 7
Canada Goose (all large) 8
Mallard 12?
Northern Shoveler 3
Northern Pintail 15
Harlequin Duck 9
Surf Scoter 7
Osprey 3
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
California Quail heard
Semipalmated Plover 8
Killdeer 1
Greater Yellowlegs 12
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Black Turnstone 150-170
Surfbird 100
Western Sandpiper 400?
Least Sandpiper 2
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Long-billed Dowitcher 30
Wilson's Phalarope 3
Bonaparte's Gull 1
Heermann's Gull 20
Mew Gull 1
California Gull 40
Glaucous-winged Gull 6
Caspian Tern 14
Common Murre 4
Pigeon Guillemot 25
Marbled Murrelet 2
Rhinoceros Auklet 8
Rock Pigeon 25
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Downy Woodpecker heard
Northern Flicker 4
Steller's Jay 1
American Crow 15
Violet-green Swallow 120
Barn Swallow 150
chickadee species heard
Bushtit 8?
Red-breasted Nuthatch heard
Brown Creeper 1
Bewick's Wren heard
American Robin 12
European Starling 25
Cedar Waxwing 9
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 1
Spotted Towhee heard
Savannah Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 2
Black-headed Grosbeak 2
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Brewer's Blackbird 1
House Finch 30
American Goldfinch 40