Hi Tweets,



Well what a difference a few days makes around here. The balmy upper 30's and lower 40's we've been experiencing helped melt a lot of the snow in the Kent-Auburn area and we managed to have a pretty successful CBC today. Not all of the teams were represented at our potluck and some of the saltwater birds such as Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants, Rhino Auklets and Marbled Murrelets may have been missed - but that's not unusual as we have such a small slice of saltwater shoreline.



We did manage to count lots of birds though and some of the highlights that come to my mind include the three new birds for our count:



Red-shouldered Hawk (the Kent Ponds bird finally showed itself on CBC day - we missed it the 1st two years)

Bohemian Waxwing (Charlie Wright & crew spotted these (2?) in eastish Renton.)

Pine Grosbeak (Ken Brunner saw a female in the Maple Valley area)



Other highlights include:

Northern Goshawk (Maple Valley)

Bittern (Riverview Marsh)

Snow Geese (Hundreds throughout the circle - including a flock of 650(!) on Frager Road)

50+ Trumpeter Swans

Redheads - many, including the traditional spot near Angle Lake

~6 Scrub Jays (Kent Valley)

Northern Shrike (Auburn area)

25 Western Meadowlarks (Smith Bros. Dairy)



Several Peregrines and Merlins, a smattering of Varied Thrushes and Sapsuckers and several Dippers were also seen.



Some misses or low points include an apparent total absence of Western Grebes (how long til its listed as a state threatened species?), low sparrow numbers, low winter finch numbers and no Mountain Chickadees.



Good birding,



Jim Flynn