Hi Everyone--

I spent last weekend 4/2-3 taking a whirlwind trip around Puget Sound. Here
is a whirlwind summary.

I spent most of the morning of 4/2 at the ponds on 277th St. S in Kent. The
site is about 2 miles east of I-5 (exit 147), east of the traffic light at
the bottom of the 11% grade and west of West Valley Hwy S; the best viewing
is toward the west end of the pond, just east of the guardrails protecting
the creek (not really a bridge). I learned that the Smith Brothers Farm
leases this 50 acre marsh for hunting and dog training. I arrived a bit
after 8am to find hundreds of Green-winged Teal (much head-bobbing going
on), and a goodly variety of other ducks. Around 10:20, after two hours of
searching, helped immensely by a Bald Eagle stirring up the ponds, the
BAIKAL TEAL moved into more or less open water. For a period of 20 minutes
or so, it ducked down so only the top of its head was visible, but it also
swam around in full view. Around 11:20, it flew back into some dense reeds
(nice to see the green speculum and pale trailing edge to the wing). That is
one fancy duck.

>From Kent, I drove north to Whatcom County, and spent the rest of the day on
Semiahmoo Spit. There were still decent numbers of winter ducks, including
Long-tailed Duck, Harlequin Duck, and Black Scoter. The Wings Over Water
Festival's tent provided a handy shelter for scoping the bay. A male Rufous
Hummingbird perched on an alder along the cliffs at the base of the spit for
a short while. A Belted Kingfisher looked odd perched on rocks in the
intertidal zone. I enjoyed listening to the Common Loons trying out their
voices; Red-necked and Horned Grebes were getting into breeding plumage. A
question occurred to me. I observed Northwestern Crows (the default coastal
crow at this latitude) and Glaucous-winged Gulls both dropping "fruits de
mer" onto the rocks. The crows usually picked smaller ones than the gulls,
but not always. I was surprised at how few fights there were; the crows
didn't bother the gulls, and vice versa. How come the gulls aren't trying to
steal the crows' food?

I spent Sunday 4/3 birding my way back south. Rain was off and on. An
Orange-crowned Warbler was singing near the boat ramp at Larrabee State
Park. The West 90 was quite rainy, and I saw no Gyrfalcons (or any other
falcons, for that matter), but a drenched Bald Eagle was perched on a
utility pole next to the parking area. I took the Keystone ferry over to
Port Townsend: a Great Blue Heron nesting on a piling mere inches from the
ferry at the Keystone terminal; 8 Marbled Murrelets, 10 Rhinoceros Auklets,
4 Pigeon Guillemots, and 3 Harlequin Ducks on the journey. From Hudson
Point, I scoped hundreds more Rhinos. I recorded one Turkey Vulture in
Jefferson County along SR 19, and another in Kitsap County along SR 3. I
made one last brief stop back in Kent at the pond on 285th St. S (a dead end
street 1/2 mile or so south of 277th on West Valley Hwy), where there were 4
Eurasian Wigeon among the throngs of grazing Americans. The 277th St. ponds
had very few ducks, and almost no Green-winged Teal. I found a female
Ring-necked Duck that I did not see on Saturday, but no Baikal Teal. From
here, I went back to the airport for my flight back to California. There was
a nice view of the 277th St. ponds from the airplane. The drive out of
Oakland featured thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. The weather is
getting really weird.

Mark Miller
Pleasanton, CA