Tweets,

I was fortunate to see the Baikal Teal drake at the Kent Ponds on Feb. 1. Mark Renninger and I watched it put in an appearance shortly after 5:00 PM, while scanning from the Southeast Tower. It swam out from the east side of the channel that runs north from the tower, and after about 15 minutes of slow meandering appeared to put up for the night in one of the emergent grassy areas that cross the channel. I was unable to re-find it on Feb. 2, either in the morning or in the 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. period, while watching the same area.

On Feb. 2 around 12:30 p.m., there was a single adult "Blue" or dark morph Snow Goose among thousands of white Snow Geese on Fir Island. The entire bird was charcoal gray except for the head and upper neck and the lower belly. At the time the flock was in the fields along Fir Is. Rd. where the road takes a 90 degree turn to the north.

Around 1:30 p.m., the adult gray morph Gyrfalcon was present at the West 90 on the Samish Flats, perched atop the third or fourth utility pole east of the 90 degree turn. It didn't budge for at least half an hour.

Good birding, Bob


Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, WA