Greetings All

A field trip that was more like a party headed to Whidbey yesterday. Dennis
Duffy, Brad Wagonner, Doug and Pip Watkins, Jack Stephens, and Barry Levine
(and me).

The potential "star" bird was a murrelet. It was a dead ringer for the
depiction of a juv LONG-BILLED MURRELET in Sibley's guide and far paler than any juv
Marbled Murrelet that I've knowingly seen. Problem. It was small. Smaller
than Marbled M's in the vicinity, implying it was a YOUNG juv. So, is this
possible? If not, then young Marbleds can be dead-ringers for Long-billeds, which
raises all sorts of other issues. Anyway, such is being investigated, and I will
pass on whatever I find out. There have been several of us, looking at the
timing of LBMU occurrence in the west (a number of specimens of July adults)
that have wondered about nesting in North America.....

Otherwise, more mundane but still of interest were
Dunlin -- breeding plumage -- Crockett Lake
Black Scoter -- off Boz Lake (aka Swantown or Swan Lake)
Western Gull -- at Keystone
returning Bonys and Snipe
Horned Grebe at Deer Lagoon
3 Western Grebes off Keystone
5 Semi Sands at Crockett
1 Semi Sand and a RN Phalarope (yes, Brad, you were correct- a male) at the
West 90 Ponds.

I'll spare the Listserv subscribers the many puns.

Cheers
Steve Mlodinow
Everett WA