Tweetsters,

A few notes from yesterday's birding by our group of eleven birders. At the West 90 of the Samish "T", there were 8 or so Barn Swallows working to the southeast of the parking area. Small flocks of winter Barn Swallows have become amazingly regular in recent years on or near the PNW river deltas. No sign of a gray Gyr' during our time on the flats, but the weather was deteriorating. One Short-eared Owl popped up briefly.

We also checked the Snohomish Flats traditional Gyrfalcon roost trees area in the late afternoon, with no sign of a Gyr'. We did see here some stunning aerial maneuvers by thousands of crows heading for roost by 4 p.m. on this very dark, gray afternoon.

Our group saw six different Peregrine Falcons yesterday, five in the vicinity of the Samish Flats/Samish Is., and one along Dodge Valley Rd. At one point on the Samish, we watched a Merlin and a Peregrine simultaneously working the same flock of Dunlin/Black-bellied Plovers, although neither caught a bird on that round. Later in the day we saw a Peregrine and Cooper's Hawk (both immatures) working the same flock of Rock Pigeons at the same instant (Dodge Valley Rd). Saw three dark morph Rough-legged Hawks and probably 7 light morphs, including an adult male light morph not far from the turnoff onto Samish Is.

We also saw three different Northern Shrikes in the Samish vicinity, one along Farm-to-Market Rd. and two along Samish Is. Rd. It seems a good year for Northern Shrikes; we have had an immature daily in our pasture east of Tenino, since about Nov. 2.

Good birding, Bob

Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, WA