Subject: [Tweeters] RED-SHOULDERED HAWK near La Conner (Skagit Co.) again
Date: Feb 12 21:33:21 2008
From: Wayne Weber - contopus at telus.net


Tweeters,

The adult RED-SHOULDERED HAWK found by Bob Sundstrom on February 9th, and
seen again by Ryan Merrill on the 10th, was present again today at almost
exactly the same spot. It was perched on a power pole just SW of the west
end of Valley Road, about 1/2 mile east of La Conner. The bird was there
when I arrived about 1:40 PM, and did not leave the pole until I left at
2:10 to look at birds elsewhere in the area. Although there was non-stop
drizzle and light rain while I was watching it, the bright reddish-brown
breast (fading to a whitish abdomen), reddish-brown crown, and barred
black-and-white wings were seen well. I didn't get a good look at the back
and tail because the hawk was facing me almost the whole time, but when it
briefly preened its tail, black and white bands were evident.

I revisited Valley Road about 3:30 (in the sunshine!), but the hawk was not
visible then.

I birded along Dodge Valley Road to the south and east from Valley Road for
about 1.5 hours. There were 2 large flocks of Tundra Swans, each with about
200 birds-- one near the junction of Dodge Valley and Landing Roads, and
the other east of the junction of Dodge Valley and Valley Roads. I could not
find any Trumpeter Swans in these two flocks, although there was a separate
flock of 11 Trumpeters about halfway between these 2 locations, and lots of
Trumpeters on the Skagit Flats near Burlington.

This aggregation of more than 400 Tundra Swans is one of the biggest
wintering flocks of this species I have seen in the Skagit Flats, at least
in recent years. There were at least 6 Tundra Swans with neck collars,
although because of distance, I was only able to read the alphanumeric codes
on 3 of them. I will send the data to Martha Jordan.

Good luck and good birding,

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net