Dear Tweeters,

Howard Armstrong and I tried for the reported
Steller's Eider in Edmonds, with no luck. We spent
perhaps four hours in the area, at the little
Brackett's Landing park (only a stone's throw north of
the ferry dock), and also at Water Street, a kilometer
or so north, reached via Ninth [Street?].

There were at least five Parasitic Jaegers in various
different plumages, hundreds of Bonaparte's Gulls,
thirty or more Common Terns, and a Forster's Tern. The
Forster's kept returning to a pale, pink, ball-shaped
buoy, more or less straight out from the little rocky
point at Brackett's. Other gulls included
Glaucous-winged, California, Heermann's, one Western,
and a few Mew.

Howard and I were struck by the difference between the
birds here and up in Skagit, where Ring-billeds are
dominating now, and Bonaparte's, terns, and jaegers
few and far between.

At Water Street we watched a Cooper's Hawk interact
with crows for about fifteen minutes. Also there was a
beautiful Pacific Loon in breeding plumage, an Anna's
Hummingbird, and a Rhinoceros Auklet.

There were not many ducks to see, except for a few
dozen each of American Wigeon and Surf Scoter, but
there were two Harlequin Duck drakes in the kelp. A
lone Northern Pintail flew by at one point, and there
was also an unidentified Anas duck way out in the bay,
possibly a hen Gadwall, that we tried in vain to
transform into an eider. We also spotted several
birders in the area, including Marv Breece, who no
doubt would concur that, despite the lack of any
eiders, it was indeed a good day.

Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com