Washington birders,

I am visiting this week from South Carolina and have had a great
time. Thanks to Brian Bell for expert guidance and to Hugh Jennings for
suggesting this trip. So far this week, my first winter trip to the
Northwest,
I have seen 13 North American life birds. Trumpeters, Northern Shrike,
Rough-legged Hawk,
Pacific Loon, and Mew Gull were new to me on Brian's trip. The looks at
hunting Short-eared Owls were exceptional. Today my daughter Libby took me
to Whidbey Island, which is beautiful and full of birds right now. Using
the Opperman "Guide to Washington Birds"
(highly recommended), I was able to locate Black Oystercatchers at
Deception State Park
(West Beach), Barrow's Goldeneye at Kennedy's Lagoon, and saw dozens of
Black Turnstones
and Surfbirds on the mussel platforms at Coupeville. There seemed to be
scoter, loons, and grebe everywhere, especially at West Beach. What a
beautiful place! I am very impressed with the wintering waterfowl here. We
have a lot off the South Carolina coast
in the winter but this is fabulous. 13 life birds so far this week. Should
I look for the Emperor Goose tommorrow or scan Alki Point for murrelets?

Gratefully,
Steve Compton
of Summerville,SC
writing from Capitol Hill in Seattle

Original Message:
-----------------
From: B & P Bell bellasoc at isomedia.com
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:23:40 -0800
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] ELWAS Samish trip 5 Dec


Hi Tweets

Yesterday I led an East Lake Washington Audubon trip to the Samish and
Skagit Flats (D-5 on p. 109 in DeLorme). The day started out well as we had
a nice grouping of TRUMPETER SWANS close to the road and right by a parking
area at Chuckanut Driver and I-5. A couple of TUNDRA SWANS were also with
one of the groups along the Drive. Up in the town of Bow we had three BALD
EAGLES perched in trees, and right over our heads a nice adult PEREGRINE
FALCON. On double checking the area we found a gorgeous RED-TAILED HAWK a
bit lower down on one of the trees. We slowly drove the residential
neighborhood of Blanchard (just before Chuckanut Drive climbs along the
edge of Samish Bay). Variously there we had RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, HOUSE
SPARROW, GOLDEN-CROWNED and WHITE-CROWNED, SONG and FOX SPARROWS, SPOTTED
TOWHEES. In one tree we had a perched MERLIN with an absolutely stuffed
crop - it must have had a super meal. Turning west toward Edison we had a
few AMERICAN COOTs in the canal and a NORTHERN SHRIKE perched on some wild
roses. Many COMMON RAVENS were cavorting north of us, and several more BALD
EAGLES were there. A NORTHERN HARRIER was over the fields, and further down
the road was a second one - both females.

As we made the turn to Samish Island Road we had nice looks at a dark morph
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. Several more RED-TAILED HAWKs were along the tree lines.
At the West 90 (where Samish Island Road turns to the north we had 7 more
NORTHERN HARRIERs working the fields and 5 or 6 SHORT-EARED OWLS. At one
point we had a Short-eared perched about 100 yards away in good light -
great thru the scopes. Then we discovered a Harrier nestled down in the
grass about 30 yards away. Great looks, and excellent opportunities to
study behavior.

We continued up toward Samish Island and had a second NORTHERN SHRIKE along
the way, this one perched obligingly for us. At the access point on Wharf
Road at the northern end of the island we had lots of activity. FOX and
SONG SPARROWs, both kinglets, SPOTTED TOWHEE, DOWNY WOODPECKER, and
CHESTNUT-BACKED and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEEs. Several VARIED THRUSHEs were
in nearby conifers. A COOPER'S HAWK was on top of a distant conifer. Out on
Samish Bay we had COMMON GOLDENEYE, RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, SURF and
WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, BUFFLEHEAD and LONG-TAILED DUCK, as well as
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT, COMMON and PACIFIC LOONs, HORNED and RED-NECKED
GREBEs, and in the distance BRANT. Driving back down the island there were
several thousand wigeon out on Padilla Bay, but the distance and light was
wrong for good identification.

We made our way down to the Skagit Flats and Fir Island (B-5 on p. 95 of
DeLorme) and out to the access point on Rawlins Rd. Offshore were perhaps
as many as 50,000 MALLARDs, and even at a distance their "talk" was loud.
More NORTHERN HARRIERS were visible from the Jensen Access off Maupin Road.
We stopped at the Hayton Preserve to look for the SWAMP SPARROW, but even
with the assistance of one of our members from South Carolina we couldn't
pull it out. As a consolation we another BALD EAGLE perched near a nest,
another PEREGRINE FALCON came in and perched and we had three very close
flybys by SHORT-EARED OWLS. One perched about 50 yards away for scoop
views, was flushed by another and then landed about 30 yards away -
fantastic views.

Lots of GREAT BLUE HERONs, AMERICAN CROWs during the day and a sprinkling
of GREEN-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN PINTAIL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, HOODED and
COMMON MERGANSERs, a few BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERs and about a thousand DUNLIN
from the Jensen Access.

We had excellent weather all day (even the wind stopped after the first 15
minutes) and finished with 72 species for the day.

It was a great day!

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
bellasoc at isomedia dot com

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