Hi tweets,



Wendy and I had a satisfying afternoon looking for hawks on Saturday. We saw
40+ Redtails, 30+ Bald Eagles, 15+ Northern Harriers, 2 Cooper's Hawks, 3
Peregrine Falcons, 2 Merlins and 3 Kestrels. I regret that we didn't see the
Gyr that Bob Sundstrom reported at the west 90. We did see our first Swans
along Norman Road west of Sylvania and a very large flock of Snow Geese on
Fir Island. There were shorebirds galore in the fields along Sunset Rd. in
the Samish Flats area.



One young Peregrine was having a very bad day on Fir Island. We first saw
her flying east as we were driving west toward Maupin Rd. We turned around
and followed her as she swooped through a barnyard and reversed course again
when she headed west. We pulled into the swan viewing area and picked her
up again as she made an unsuccessful pounce in a plowed field. She flew up
again and tried to land in a poplar tree across the highway. The branches
wouldn't hold her weight and she tumbled out, recovered, circled and tied to
land again in the same tree, again unsuccessfully. She repeated this four
more times before she gave up and headed north where we couldn't follow. We
theorized that there were some birds in the tree that wouldn't flush, but we
never saw them. Her flight was rather ragged and I worry about her welfare.



Good birding, Alan Roedell 206-522-0809, roedell at speakeasy.net