All,

I did a circle drive today combining errands and birding spots, and despite the oppressive weather, it was quite a good day.

The highlight of the day was finding a flock of 102 swans near Carnation. An additional 4 birds landed while I was photographing and scoping, and as I was leaving another group of 11 came flying in with apparent intentions to join the large group. The flock was almost entirely Trumpeters; I saw only one Tundra that I could identify with certainty. The very best aspect about this sighting, however, was that the flock contained THREE BANDED BIRDS. The bands were blue with white letters and were, respectively: P772, T439 and T487. Hopefully this is useful info to Martha Jordan.

The birds were located just north of Carnation, in a semi-flooded cornfield south of NE 60th St, within 100-150 yards of the road. As you're heading north on Highway 203 through Carnation, NE 60th is 1/2-1 mile north of the main town area. Turn left (west) on NE 60th and about halfway between 203 and where NE 60th turns right along the Snoqualmie River, the birds were in a field to the left (south).

Other interesting sightings included a 'double hookup' engineered by two Double Crested Cormorants on Sykes Lake when I drove over the bridge across the lake. These two birds (of perhaps a dozen working the lake) each had caught rather sizable catfish and - with good reason - took a substantial amount of time and acrobatics to get the fish positioned just right for swallowing. In retrospect, I would have had time to get the camera out and get a good shot, but with the driving rain and being in the middle of the bridge, I opted to just enjoy the visual. A female Common Goldeneye was paddling nearby while all this was going on. Further along on Carnation Farm Road heading back toward Carnation, there is a small pond near the Chinook Bend Natural Area between Carnation Farm and the Snoqualmie River. This pond always has birds on it and today hosted about 30 American Wigeon and 8 Gadwall.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com