Greetings. I've been lurking here, watching the listings for several weeks,
and couldn't resist checking in today. My husband and I had a glorious day of
birding, starting in Everett on Spencer Island and then heading out to Port
Angeles to Ediz Spit on a whim, since the weather was amazing and we were having
fun. I'll try to keep straight which birds we saw in each place.
At Spencer Island, our favorite spotting was 2 pileated woodpeckers, with their
red crests glimmering in the sunlight, in full view for as long as we could
watch. Other birds we saw there were belted kingfisher, northern flicker, Black
Capped Chickadees, American Crow, Brewer's Blackbird, Marsh Wren, Pacific
[Sooty] Fox Sparrow, Pintail, Ruddy Duck, American Coot, Gadwall, Canada Geese,
Dunlin, Great Blue Heron, Spotted Towhee, American Robin, Tree Swallow, House
Sparrow. Mallard, American Widgeon, Great Blue Heron.
On Ediz Spit, which is a great place for finding water birds, we saw Hooded
Merganser, Double Crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Brant's Cormorant, Pied
Billed Grebe, Mallard, American Widgeon, Western Grebe, Pigeon Guillemot, Common
Loon, Red Breasted Merganser, Black Scoter, White Winged Scoter, Lesser Scaup,
and a personal favorite, the Harlequin Duck, showing off to his mate not 20 feet
from where we stood.
We made a quick stop at John Wayne Marine in Sequim and were rewarded by several
Black Oystercatchers, Kildeer, belted Kingfisher, all scared off by an amazing
bald eagle who flew in and took over their spot on the beach, not 50 feet from
where we were standing. Also another Great Blue Heron.
Amazing Day. Terry McNichols, Seattle, WA, terrymcn at earthlink.net