Hi Tweets,

Apologies for a late posting: on Thursday, October 28, Barbara and I arrived
at the Samish Flats area in light rain that never completely stopped.
Temperatures were in the upper 40s early and low 50s later. It was low tide,
too, so the shorebirds were pretty well scattered, and the numbers of loons,
grebes, and alcids in Rosario Strait were low.

We did not find the Gyrfalcon reported by Bob Sundstrom a week ago. To us
the season seemed early, though groups of winter ducks are arriving. We saw
large groups of Northern Pintail, Bufflehead, and Red-breasted Mergansers,
but normal numbers of other winter ducks (Canvasback, scaup, Black Scoters,
and goldeneyes) weren't present yet. We covered the Samish area from Edison
to Samish Island, then south to Highway 20. Our last stop was at the Rosario
Beach unit of Deception Pass State Park.

One curiosity was a Wild (?) Turkey hen that appeared briefly south of Hwy
20 near Best Rd though we didn't stop to see if there were others around or
assess if it really was a wild bird. The county bird list from Washington
Birder doesn't show that the WITU occurs in Skagit County. Does anyone know
more about its status?

45 total species seen:
Pacific Loon
Common Loon (10+ seen)
Red-necked Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron [1]
Canada Goose
American Wigeon (200+ in Alice Bay)
Gadwall
Northern Pintail (400+ in Alice Bay)
Canvasback
Greater Scaup
Harlequin Duck [2]
Surf Scoter
Bufflehead (100+ around March Point)
Red-breasted Merganser (100+)
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk [3]
Merlin [4]
Peregrine Falcon [5]
Wild Turkey (see above)
American Coot
Dunlin
Mew Gull
California Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
Northern Flicker
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Winter Wren
Varied Thrush
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Meadowlark [6]
Brewer's Blackbird
House Finch
House Sparrow

[1] Includes a concentration of 18 birds in a small part of the flats south
of Bayview.
[2] 1 flying over Samish Bay, 1 at Rosario Beach
[3] 1 perched near the south turn at the East 90
[4] 1 barreling unsuccessfully into a ball of starlings
[5] 3 sightings along Bayview-Edison Rd, possibly only two birds
[6] 5 scattering about to avoid the Merlin in [4] above

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.websterATcomcast.net