Hi all,

This (Sunday) afternoon, a trip through the Snoqualmie Valley from Novelty Hill Road past Carnation Farm, through Carnation, Carnation Marsh and into Fall City yielded six Red Tailed Hawks, nine Bald Eagles and two Cooper's Hawks. The eagles included six adults and three second/third year immatures. One adult has been pretty regularly sitting in a riverside tree right in Fall City.

A very large flock of mostly Canada Geese in the largest hay field at Carnation Farm included a lone Snow Goose and at least two Greater White Fronted Geese. There were only a very few Cackling Geese in the flock. These geese alternate between working the large hay field and fields further west along Sykes Lake.

There has been a flock of several hundred ducks working several corn and grass fields to the south of Tall Chief golf course for a week or so. The flock is primarily Mallards, but includes a number of American Wigeon (no Eurasians seen, though I didn't scope them extremely thoroughly) and several Northern Pintail. Sykes Lake had a good assortment of American Coot, Double Crested Cormorants, American Wigeon, Mallard, Pied Billed Grebe, Bufflehead, Ring Necked Duck and Hooded Merganser. The eddies below and across from the confluence of Tokul Creek and the Snoqualmie River along Fish Hatchery Road regularly have a group of Common Merganser and (on Saturday) two Common Goldeneye.

With the buds starting to show, and the passerines starting to sing, it's a great time to check out the valley.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com