Hi tweets,



Wendy and I birded casually from Sylvania to Samish Bay on Saturday
afternoon, witnessing the familiar changing of the season and the unexpected
spectacle of Nature in action. We saw our first Bald Eagle in a while along
the Pioneer Highway and pausing at Port Susan Bay to marvel at the elaborate
decoy arrangements we first heard and then saw two flocks of Snow Geese a
few hundred feet over our heads. We were thrilled! The camouflaged hunters
were trying to call them in, but the geese circled around and out of range
in the mist. We missed the usual American Kestrel along Boe Road, but
picked one up on Thomle Rd. We stopped at the Cookie Mill (the owner likes
birders) in Stanwood for coffee and sandwiches and then scanned the outer
pond of the STP and came up with Long-billed Dowitchers, Lesser and Greater
Yellowlegs, Green-winged Teal, Mallards, and one stunning Wilson's Snipe.



We passed up the Skagit Headquarters in honor of hunting season and while
stopping at every roadside produce stand along the way we saw two more Bald
eagles. After our last produce stand along the Chuckanut Highway we stopped
to observe a Peregrine ripping at a long-legged bird fifty feet away on a
power cable. We drove into the West 90 parking lot, but it was full of
hunters' vehicles, so we headed for the little park above Samish Bay, hoping
for a Long-tailed Duck. No luck on the duck, but there were three species
of grebes, 10+ Common Loons, Surf Scoters, and a veritable swarm of
Double-crested Cormorants, more than I've ever seen in one location. I
estimated 600+ of them, following a school of small fish (herring,
candlefish?) diving shallowly and surfacing with fish crossways in their
bills, nonchalantly tossing them in the air to orient them with their
gullets and sometimes losing them to the opportunistic gulls flashing by at
just the right time. We watched until we got cold and then headed for
Whidbey Island.



We were losing the light, but we managed a few more stops along the west
side, seeing more loons, all Common, and knockout views of Harlequin Ducks
at Libbey Beach. We then went west to Kennedy Lagoon on Penn Cove where we
saw more yellowlegs, loons, and large rafts of scoters too far out to
identify. Just as I was about to fold up the scope, a small flock of Black
Turnstones flew in to join a larger flock that had remained unseen, though
actively feeding on the north shore. With that, we headed home to enjoy the
fruits of our foraging, a delicious salad and leek and potato soup. As a
locally famous birder would say, "It was a good day."



Alan Roedell, Seattle. roedell at speakeasy.net