I had a great day birding up in the Skagit area today, ending up with
104 species and tens of thousands of individual birds. I started at
Green Point in Washington Park which was fortunately free of fog. No
shearwaters for me, but good numbers of murrelets including 47
Ancients (see below). Lake Erie had hundreds of scaup and Ring-necked
Ducks but no Redheads. Between Lake Erie and Heart Lake there were at
least 70 Hooded Mergansers.

On Chilberg Avenue off Snee-oosh Road there was a male Anna's
Hummingbird, and distantly at the fish pens were 150 'rockpipers' -
mostly Black Turnstones with some Surfbirds mixed in.

A White-throated Sparrow on Samish Island continues at the church just
as you come on the island. There were 2 Eared Grebes off the DNR Park
on Wharf Rd. Alice Bay was filled with ducks including 5 Eurasian
Wigeon, and an American Kestrel was flying around the adjacent field.
A Rough-legged Hawk was at Sullivan Road along with Western
Meadowlarks.

Jensen Access had 150 American Pipits and 300 Tundra Swans. The Snow
Goose flock cooperated and included an adult and immature Blue Goose,
plus two adult and one immature intermediate Blue Geese.

I finished the day around Stanwood. Off the Big Ditch was a massive
flock of Dunlin that was probably 15,000 birds or more. A couple
Short-eared Owls hunting at dusk was a nice way to end the day.


Green Point, Washington Park, Anacortes - Seawatch
07:15-08:30

Red-throated Loon - 3
Pacific Loon - 123
Red-necked Grebe - 20
Horned Grebe - 1
Western Grebe - 10
Double-crested Cormorant - 6
Brandt's Cormorant - 7
Pelagic Cormorant - 24
'Black' Brant - 8
American Wigeon - 5
Mallard - 3
Harlequin Duck - 8
Oldsquaw - 4
Surf Scoter - 79
White-winged Scoter - 12
Common Goldeneye - 1
Bufflehead - 8
Red-breasted Merganser - 5
Bald Eagle - 1
Mew Gull - 30
California Gull - 1
Glaucous-winged Gull - 5
Common Murre - 106
Pigeon Guillemot - 64
Marbled Murrelet - 82
Ancient Murrelet - 47
murrelet sp. - 15
Rhinocerous Auklet - 3


Good Birding,

Ryan Merrill
Kirkland, WA