Subject: [Tweeters] w. Scrub-jay, Sequim-Dungeness
Date: Dec 16 10:57:47 2008
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com



Tweeters:

A bit belated, had a W. SCRUB-JAY on the Seattle U campus at 14th and Cherry on Capitol Hill Saturday, Dec. 13, near the north edge of their regular Seattle range.

Also, did the Sequim-Dungeness CBC at Graysmarsh yesterday. It was miserably cold (we figured a range of 20-27 F without wind chill) but we found 87 species at Graysmarsh, close to average. There were no earth-shaking rarities but there were:

Eur. Wigeon 2
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK 1 (only the 3rd for Grays, Marginal Field, scarce Clallam Co)
huge gull concentrations along beach--including 5 California, 1 Ring-bill 1st year, 1 Thayer's; 19 Western, 375 Mew
Ancient Murrelet 2 (Anne Winskie, had 5 on Sunday)
Sora 1 (answered tape early, hanging in there despite cold)
singles of W. Screech and N. Saw-whet Owl
Am. Pipit 1
warbler, sp. 1
8 sparrows (not including junco) totalling 368 individuals: highlights 1 SWAMP, 2 WHITE-THROATED (two others seen elsewhere), best CBC at Grays highs for Lincoln's (12), Golden-crowned (145), and 2nd highest for Fox (48), including a remarkable number of very cooperative birds of the last in the open; Spotted Towhee was also record-high with 64. On the downside: several misses and record-lows for Marsh Wren and N. Shoveler, several others very low

Also--scouting out a bit before count Sunday, had 5 Townsend's Warblers at the bottom of School House Lane just south of Sequim Bay State Park, this has proven the most reliable spot over the years for them along w. Sequim Bay.

Don't want to steal 'ol Bob's thunder, but as of last night at about 7:30 pm, we had 138 species, with 5-6 parties (one of them e. Sequim Bay with salt water) to report. Although last year the Sequim-Dungeness CBC became the first in state history to reach 150 species (after staying in the 141-147 range for many years), we thought 138 a remarkable number, given very harsh conditions of the freeze-up. I was amazed that the boats got out at all, given the wind.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com


there were two WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS (two others were found elsewhere), one SWAMP SPARROW, a
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