Hello all,
I'm new to this so guide me if I could make my postings better. Sunday we
went to Mt Vernon to meet some friends for lunch so we decided to do some
birding as we headed down and back. The highlight was seeing the Gyrfalcon
at Hayton Reserve (Skagit Wildlife Area). The tide was in and the Gyr was
out on a root wad right off the end of the walk. Very excxiting, really.
There was also a Peregrine in the trees by the parking lot. There were some
American Widgeon and Mallards in the field with a small flock of what I
assume were Sandpipers. There were, also, many shore birds out on the logs
past the dike, most likely Dunlins and Sandppipers. I think if I itemize
too much this will go on forever, so I will say we say many ducks, nothing
out of the ordinary, Mallards, American Widgeon, Pintails, Green Teals, etc.
We did get a great show as an Juvenile Eagle was trying to chase down
ducks along the Bayview-Edisod Rd. He even almost got one right in front of
us(iwas afraid he of the duck would cropss the road and get hit they were so
close) as we stopped to watch. We had also seen a Peregrine on a telephone
pole here on the way down, near the intesection with Sullivan Rd. I will
mention the one other Peregrine sighting we had. Just before the Eagle show
we spotted a Peregrine on a tree by Padilla Bay Shore trail, right on
Bayview-Edison Rd near the intersection with Bayview Rd (We've seen this one
here before.) OK, I am getting long winded agian so I will just mention
that we did stop by the West 90 on the way down but didn;t see too much. As
usual there were many Eagles (way too many to count), Harriers, Red tails,
one Rough Legged (way off) a couple of American Kestrels, Swans, Song
Sparrows, and Marsh Wrens. I am sure I've left something off but I hit our
high points. Not a bad day especially since we ony got out twice, West 90
and Hayton Reserve.
So that was a long winded report mainly to tell all about the Gyr.
Good Birding.

Morgan Rohde
Bellingham, WA
dnme at hotmail.com