Did a little birding in Skagit County today. The PACIFIC GOLDEN-PLOVER was with BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and DUNLIN in the field southeast of the intersection of Sunset and Farm to Market Roads, on the Samish Flats.

A few minutes later, a short distance north of that same intersection, a recently killed LONG-EARED OWL lay on the road. There was no obvious injury. I had driven by that location only a few minutes before and did not see the owl. I believe it may have been hit by a car during that short period of time, which was about 2:00PM. The bird would not have been in such good condition if it had been there since the night before. There is a fair amount of traffic on that road, and the bird would have been run over. At any rate, I was very surprised to see that it was a long-eared.

Earlier in the day, there was a SNOWY OWL at Hayton Preserve on Fir Island.

Marv Breece
Seattle, WA