Sharon Aagaard, Stan Wood, Mark Crawford and I found the time to go up to Boe Road this morning and look for the Ruff. We took exit 208 off I-5 to Silvana and found large numbers of Trumpeter Swans (could not find any Tundras or swans with neck band) at a number of locations. A few Snow Geese were mixed in with them. More swans and geese were seen along Norman Road plus quite a few Red-tailed Hawks and Bald Eagle, hundreds of mostly Ring-billed Gulls.

We got to Boe Road about 11 a.m. and found the fields between the farm buildings on the north to the hunting area had large numbers of Killdeer, Black-bellied Plovers, and Dunlin and began our search for the bird with two spotting scopes. It took quite a while before Stan found a bird that had pale legs, Ruff sized bill, overall size comparable to the Killdeer and Black-bellied Plover and very scaly, well-patterned feathers on the back and wings.

We went to the end of Boe Road, had our lunch and Mark decided to call the number on the sign for The Nature Conservancy's Port Susan Bay Preserve. He got permission for us to walk the dike. Very worthwhile walk with excellent habitat for ducks and geese. We saw almost all the duck species that are found her in the winter and thousands of Snow Geese. A number of Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks and one raptor perched in the distance behind the trunk of a dead tree. We couldn't decide if it could be an Osprey or possibly a Rough-legged Hawk. We walked the dike to get a better look at the bird but it flew off without any of us aware of it.

On the way back on Norman Road there was one field covered with blackbirds, large numbers of Red-winged Blackbirds and Brewer's Blackbirds, a few Brown-headed Cowbirds and of course, large numbers of European Starlings. And an American Kestrel perched on the power line. All in all, it was a very good day birding in cloudy, but dry weather.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder AT earthlink dot net