Saturday a group of us from Tacoma made our annual early winter
trip to the Skagit area. Raptor numbers were seemly up over
typical early previous winter trips.

I am always amazed over the steady growth of Peregrine numbers. We have had trips in the recent past with 4-5 birds,
but on Saturday we were able to locate 9 seperate birds, from
Fir Island to Samish Flats. I can remember in the late 70's early
80's looking hi and low usually without much success.

Highlights:

2-3 Black-bellied Plovers
7 Greater Yellowlegs.
1 Short-eared owl, North access, non west 90
5 Rough-legged Hawks
2 Merlin, 1 nominate, 1 light female, looked to be prairie
9 Peregrines, 8 light birds, 1 darker.
1 Prairie Falcon, West 90
1 N. Shrike, foot of Samish Island
3-4 Savannah sp.
~30 Western Meadowlarks, West 90
1 Harlan's Hawk on D Arcy

Ken Brown
kennethwbrown at hotmail.com
Port Orchard, Wa.
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