enjoyed an incredibly beautiful day at jetty island today...

on reaching the island, the naturalist and i talked about recent birds
noted, and he had said the lake stevens audubon had been there the previous
day and seen long-billed dowitchers and semi-palmated plovers in the lagoon
(among many others)... we also talked about the pigeon guillemot that was
along the eastern shoreline of the island during the earlier harbour
cruise...

tide was out as i walked towards my favourite spot on the north end of the
island, and was consistently amazed by the numbers of caspian terns and
osprey to be seen... several adult bald eagles were seen on pilings, and i
was lucky enough to have one fly overhead at about 15-20 feet ... about 8
bonaparte's gulls were doing whatever they do when on the mudflats at the
north end, and weren't there when i came back through closer to high tide...
barn swallows, tree swallows, and i THINK violet-greens were seen at the
same location...

glaucous-winged and ring-billed dominated the gulls... among the others, i
MIGHT have seen a single glaucous gull north of the lagoon... there was also
something of a mystery on the north where the bonaparte's were located: a
number of caspian terns (or what i took to be caspians) were on the edge of
the tide line, and a VERY large tern (compared to the others) walked among
them, then flew away... i can't explain how this bird could be almost twice
the size of the others, unless the others weren't caspians. when i spoke
with the naturalist later, he said the smaller ones could be common (or even
arctic) terns, and asked if i'd noticed them in flight (forked tail?)...
unfortunately, i'm an extreme novice with gulls, and didn't think to note my
impressions at the time (beyond size and general colouration)...

finally, at the lagoon as the tide was coming in, maybe 300 peeps of many
varieties... i didn't see the dowitcher, but did get great looks at a
whimbrel and the small flock of semi-palmated plovers. AND, what really
made my day (besides not knowing what 2/3rds of the peeps were): a large
baby Q-Tip peeped and waddled and wagged its butt up and down on the trail
not three feet from me, while mom (spotted, i believe) was nervously
watching about 15 feet away...

among the few shorebirds i could recognize: the whimbrel, spotted, western
, and least sandpipers... i was told dunlin were in there as well, but
nothing came close enough for me to be sure...

rounding out the regular joes, american crows, song sparrows and european
starlings were in evidence all along the island...

no photos, because i'd torqued my upper back and shoulder three days ago,
and it's still amazingly annoying (read "good drugs required" annoying)...
knowing what i know now about the baby Q-Tip and a few of the other
oddities, i would have preferred to scream all night long if i'd gotten
those photos... i have no idea when a chance like that will happen again...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org

google earth coordinates available

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