Subject: Skagit/Samish Flats
Date: Mar 6 10:42:57 2004
From: Hugh Jennings - hughbirder at earthlink.net


Fran Wood led a group of 18 birders (5 cars) on this Seattle Audubon Field trip on Friday. He asked me to report it to Tweeters. First thing - we did not see the elusive (and now maybe deceased) Northern Saw-Whet Owl. We started out from Conway and after crossing the bridge we turned left on Mann Road which follows the river for a while and ends up at Wylie. Most people take Wylie Road from Fir Is. Rd to get to the Skagit Wildlife area, but I find that Mann Rd has more productive habitat for birds. From Mann Road we saw a flock of 30-40 TRUMPETER SWANS with 1 TUNDRA SWAN, thousands of SNOW GEESE, NORTHERN HARRIER and BALD EAGLE. We went to the boat launch parking lot where we saw a BROWN CREEPER and HAIRY WOODPECKER. We walked the dike to the saw-whet owl tree. We are sure we had the right tree as one woman in the group had seen the owl there a week ago. We crossed the foot bridge to the muddy field and looked at Cooper's Hawk for a long time in the rain. It rained continua!
lly all morning until about 11 a.m. The on to the HQ area where we could put up our scopes under the shelter and out of the rain. We saw BARN SWALLOWS, flying and perched, and one wet MOURNING DOVE on a wire, as well as Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks. We drove back to Fir Is. Rd and a couple of miles further west we turned south into the relatively new Fir Island Reserve. We saw GREEN-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN PINTAIL, BUFFLEHEAD, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT, DUNLIN flying by, GREATER SCAUP and a SHORT-EARED OWL that we watched coursing over the fields for quite a while. We ate lunch inside the comfort of the Brazeale Center. By this time, the sun was out but it was VERY WINDY. On the way to the west 90 we found at least three EURASIAN WIGEON in a large flock of AMERICAN WIGEON. At the west 90 there were a few Northern Harrier flying, there were large flocks of mixed duck species (mostly Mallard and American Wigeon), some Dunlin flying. The wind was so strong, the worst I have!
experienced there, it was difficult to hold your body and the binocul
ars steady. This high wind probably was the reason we did not see any raptors perched on telephone poles or wires, another first for me. As we left west 90 and headed north, I was in the lead car and pulled over to the side of the road to let the other cars catch up. A passenger in my car spotted a head in the brown grass beside the water in the ditch. It turned out to be a Short-eared Owl that was trying to stay out of the wind. It was only about 20 ft. away and the closest I have ever been to a SEOW. Unfortunately, none of us in the car had a camera. It flew off when one of the other cars behind us tried to get out for a better look. It just went across the road and dropped back into some tall grass and out of sight. We then drove to the small park at the end of Samish Is. which overlooks Samish Bay. This was on the lee side of the island . It was so pleasant to be out of the wind that we stayed quite a while and were rewarded by RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, COMMON LOON, LONG-!
TAILED DUCKS, HARLEQUIN DUCKS and three grebe species - RED-NECKED, WESTERN and HORNED, as well as other ducks already seen. We went on to the east 90, Church Road, T Loop Road and D'Arcy Road without seeing anything new, including not seeing an American Kestrel that is usually along D'Arcy Rd. The raptor count for the day was at least, as I am not sure I recorded all of them, 8 Red-tailed Hawks(including a Harlan's), 16 Bald Eagles, 8 Northern Harrier and 1 Cooper's Hawk. I can send a complete list of birds I recorded to anyone that wants it.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at earthlink.net
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