Sorry for the late posting for this Seattle Audubon trip last Sunday in clear, sunny weather with temperatures in the 50s and low 60s, but with cool light winds. Our trip was led by Georgia Conti and Mike Donohue. At Point Wilson we spotted most of the usual suspects, plus a TURKEY VULTURE headed toward Whidbey Island and roughly a dozen TREE SWALLOWS overhead. At Fort Flagler we found ducks, but no shorebirds, owing to the low tide. Here we counted about 150 BRANT, but the best sighting was two WESTERN MEADOWLARKS, unusual birds in Jefferson County. We made two further stops: Marrowstone Point and the county park at the south end of Indian Island for more Brant, good numbers of HARLEQUIN DUCKS and RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, but not the Yellow-billed Loon that has been spotted now and again this winter on Oak Bay. On the Keystone Ferry we saw a huge flock, some 2,000 birds, probably mostly BONAPARTE'S GULLS over toward the Edmonds side of Puget Sound. All locations on DeLorme pp. 94 & 79. My list for the day totaled 44 species:

Red-throated Loon
Common Loon
Red-necked Grebe
Horned Grebe
Western Grebe (about 30 in Puget Sound)
Double-crested Cormorant
Brandt's Cormorant (at least 3 at Point Wilson)
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Brant (c. 200 total at Ft Flagler and Oak Bay)
American Wigeon
Mallard
Harlequin Duck (c. 12 at Point Wilson and Oak Bay)
Long-tailed Duck (2 at Point Wilson, 2 at Ft Flagler)
Black Scoter (Several still at Marrowstone Point)
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser (c 16 total at Pt Wilson, Ft Flagler, Oak Bay)
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Cooper's Hawk (1 by Hwy 19 north of Port Hadlock)
Killdeer
Mew Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Common Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Rhinoceros Auklet
Rock Pigeon
Tree Swallow
American Robin
American Crow
Common Raven
European Starling
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
House Finch
House Sparrow

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.websterATcomcast.net