Tweeters:

Don't want to steal 'ol Bob's thunder but thought some of you might be
interested in preliminary results of the Seuqim-Dungeness CBC held on
Monday. The total species count is 141, with a couple more possible pending
receipt of details. This is a small miracle given the windstorm we faced at
dawn: winds to 65 mph were reported from the Dungeness Spit lighthouse.
Amazingly, the crew that usually covers it went headlong into it, from the
base, walking all the way out and back instead of benefitting from the usual
boat ride that starts them out at Graveyard Spit. Let's face it, birders
are a dogged lot! In addition, the boat party trip, which has been so
effective in recent years covering open waters between the tip of DSpit and
Protection I , was cancelled. This surely cost us at least a couple
species, as well as the main counts of species like Ancient Murrelet, Pigeon
Guillimot, and Com. Murre, at least.

We at Grays effectively lost the first two hours (8-10 am) for effective
counting--yet other parties were unable to really count effectively until
nooon. So we all figured on much fewer species. For the day at Grays we
had considerably fewer species than average--just 80, well short of the
10-year average of 88. We missed for the first time in recent memory
species like Common Loon, Com. Murre, Downy Woodpecker, Purple Finch, and
Am. Goldfinch; counts of many species were well down as well, owing to the
winds and also the cold pre-CBC period. But there were highlights,
including:

Mallard 9120 (almost triple previous record high)
N. Pintail 1736 (more than triple previous high)
record-high on Am. Wigeon
duck, sp. 1910 (nearly double previous high)
Wood Duck 3
Am. Bittern 2 (only ones for count)
Am. Coot 138 (double previous high)
Band-tailed Pigeon 6
BARN SWALLOW 1
Hermit Thrush 1
Cedar Waxwing 1
196 individual sparrows of the usual 8 sp (not incl Junco, Towhee)
(White-thr. 3, Swamp 1)

Other count highlights:

ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK 1 (Bob B's area near 3 Crabs)
BLUE GROUSE 1 (high up on Burnt Hill, s. edge of circle)
MARBLED GODWIT 2 (Port Washington)
W. Sandpiper 1 (DSpit)
LB Dowitcher 6 (Bob B party near 3 Crabs)
Snowy Owl 5 (most on DSpit but 1 near summit of Burnt Hill 2568' high, being
mobbed by jays!)
Orange-crowned Warbler 1 (near Dungeness Community Church, Bob B party)

Berry birds (BT Pigeon, Cedar Wax, Hermit Thrush) had a good year, and our
record-highs of ducks were apparently caused by the frozen ponds inland,
forcing birds down to coastal Graysmarsh.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com