Sorry for the late post for a Skagit/Samish Flats trip that Shiva Parameswaren and I took on Friday, Dec. 9th. As no one has posted from this area for the weekend I will go ahead and post even thought this is a little late. It was a sunny clear cold day with no wind which made for good viewing conditions most of the day. We had several notable sightings for the day apart from the numerous BALD EAGLES, RED-TAILED HAWKS and NORTHERN HARRIERS. There was a PEREGRINE FALCON near Field and Church Road and a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK near Field and Farm-to-Market. At the Samish River Bridge there was a LINCOLN'S SPARROW, 5 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER and 7 WILSON'S SNIPE and several duck species. About a 1/2 mile east of the SAMISH WEST-90 there was an adult MERLIN in a deciduous tree in the rear of a beige house on Samish Island Road. It did fly off while we were watching and returned to the same tree and it was again located in the same tree about an hour later. At the WEST 90 our best finds were an adult NORTHERN SHRIKE hunting from posts in the open field and 3 ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS flitting about the corn stocks at the edge of the corn field. There was a COOPER'S HAWK on the road to Samish Island near the LDS Church. We spotted 1 LONG-TAILED DUCK among the usual suspects from Samish Island Park. At Sullivan Road and Sullivan Lane there was HARLAN'S HAWK and another ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. Not far onto Darcy Road we spotted a large falcon --a possible Gyrfalcon. The bird moved before we could confirm the ID. We relocated the bird in the same area about 20 minutes later in the same area harassing a Raven but the sun in the background made any definitive ID impossible. It landed in the trees up the hill and several times took off to chase a Raven but never came back to the original post area. In trying to locate this bird we found 2 AMERICAN KESTRELS on Person Road.

On Fir Island at the North Fork Access at the end of Rawlins Road we walked the dike to the where was a chain over the path for the Gun Club. There was 1 SHORT-EARED OWL and 1 SNOWY OWL in the driftwood to the left of that area about 1/2 mile out. At the Hayton Reserve there was another SNOWY OWL in the field along a plowed ditch in the field closer to Fir Island Road. There was another SHORT-EARED OWL seen in the driftwood from the dike area.

Mary Anne Thorbeck
maryannethorbeck at comcast.net
Seattle