And those of us who had been at the Black-headed Gull spot for some hours
before Patricia, Gina and the Cottets arrived had the same kind of luck. We
had a bird or two (or the same bird at different times) that may or may not
have been the bird of interest...but the viewing conditions (FOG, FOG, FOG)
left us with no satisfaction. Three times I had a bird that looked much like
a Bonaparte's, though a bit larger as seen next to Bonaparte's, and a bit
lighter, with a pinkish bill and a black tip...but the conditions just did
not let me count the bird as a life bird. I also imagine that I saw dark
underwings on the primaries, but did not note the dark trailing edge of the
upper wings. So maybe another time and day, or another bird....

Kristin Stewart
Olympia
kristinstewart01 at comcast.net




----- Original Message -----
From: "pslott" <VariedThrush at comcast.net>
To: "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 6:42 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] life birds


> Tweeters,
>
> Just got back from a second great day of birding with Gina and the
> Cottets. Yesterday, we got the Whooper, Emperor, and, yes, the King
> Eider. We had squalls and gale force winds up at Semiahmoo after very
> pleasant birding earlier in Snohomish. We got the bird on our second
> eye-watering effort. Very tiring.
> Today, the Long-billed showed up for us out in the open waters to the left
> shortly after sun up and the Thick-billed followed in the company of two
> Commons over by the lighthouse, but we dipped on an afternoon try for the
> Black-headed in very poor viewing conditions. There was a bird we thought
> probable among the Bonaparte's, but unable to detect the orange bill from
> a great distance through mild fog, we were reluctant to be satisfied with
> it as a life bird.
>
> The Long-billed was alone, as usual, but we had lots of Marbled all around
> and were not seeing any Ancients. The bird was viewed only a short time
> and it went down before I could see it. It was never to be found again.
> As the tide came in, the Ancients began to show and the Marbled dwindled
> to almost nothing by the time we left at 11:30. The very visible rip tide
> was being worked heavily around 11, and Ancients were everywhere. At
> first, many were only surfacing the front portion of the head before
> slipping back into the deeps. Later, they could be seen flying by in
> flocks of a dozen individuals and sitting on the calm, windless waters in
> similar numbers.
>
> This was an excellent weekend.
>
> Patricia S. Lott
> Seattle, WA
> mail to: VariedThrush at comcast.net
>
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