Subject: Snohomish/King County; 2 Feb. 2004
Date: Feb 2 23:56:02 2004
From: Charlie Wright - charlie at birdwright.com


Greetings all
Today I headed up to bird the Monroe and Snohomish area with Carol Schulz in
the morning, then in the afternoon spent a few hours at the Cedar Rivermouth
and Coulon Park in Renton. Definitely the highlight of the day was a Red
Fox Sparrow at Two Rivers WMA. I found the bird, a dead ringer for either
zaboria or iliaca, near the southwest parking lot at Crescent Lake. Refer
to the Birder's Guide to Washington for directions to this spot. From there
you walk north on the trail about two tenths of a mile to the first
blackberry patch on the left (west) side of the trail, and the bird was
hanging out in there although quite secretive after the initial observation.

Crescent Lake Wildlife Area (9:00am-12:00pm)
Northern Bobwhite (1)-calling, are they established here?
Ring-necked Pheasant (1)
Cooper's Hawk (1)
Merlin (1)
American Kestrel (3)
Barn Owl (2)
Hairy Woodpecker (3)
Pileated Woodpecker (1)
Varied Thrush (20)
Spotted Towhee (30+): at least one interior race.
RED FOX SPARROW (1)
Lincoln's Sparrow (6)
White-throated Sparrow (1ad, intermediate tan/white)
Purple Finch (4)

We missed the Gyrfalcon at Snohomish. In various fields were over 100
Trumpeter Swans with a sprinkling of Tundra. At the Snohomish STP was a
Thayer's Gull and many Lesser Scaup (no Greater).

Then we headed back south to Renton and searched for the Slaty-backed Gull,
which I missed again. However, the reward for freezing out on that dock for
several hours up until sunset was a very neat adult Glaucous Gull. This
bird was SMALL, certainly of the barrovianus race and probably a female. To
put it in perspective, the bird was about the size of a large-end Thayer's
Gull nearby and dwarfed by all nearby Glaucous-wingeds. However the bill
was relatively deep and the wing projection did not favor Iceland. This was
one of four Glaucous Gulls seen today, and there have been a minimum of six
in the last month at this location.

S. Lake Washington (1:35-5:20)
Canvasback (5)
Horned Grebe (3)
Western Grebe (300)
Clark's Grebe (1): Cedar Rivermouth, plus several intermediates.
Mew Gull (50)
Ring-billed Gull (8)
California Gull (1ad.)
Herring Gull (25)
Thayer's Gull (20)
Western Gull (15)
Glaucous-winged Gull (10,000): ~70% pure.
GLAUCOUS GULL (4: 2-1W, 1-2W, 1-adult)
Gl-winged x Glaucous Gull (1-1W)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (2 Audubon's)

Also, on Saturday, 31 January there were 22 Barn Swallows and a Swamp
Sparrow (heard only) at Skagit Game Range HQ.

Cheers and good birding,
Charlie Wright
Sumner Wa
charlie at birdwright.com