Greetings All

David Irons, Brad Waggoner and I birded Skagit County today. Just s. of
Conway (on the road from Conway to Stanwood) there was a flock of about 1000 swans.
There were several birds with more than the usual yellow on the bill, one
with a classic Bewick's Swan bill (of Japanese population).

See pic at http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Swans/BewicksPr.JPEG (bird
looking upwards).

There was also another bird with probably enough yellow on side of bill to
meet "criteria" for Bewick's Swan (greater than 22 or 23% of bill in profile
yellow) in same flock. The white-cheeked goose flock in the field contained 11
Taverner's Cackling Geese and one minima.

Overall, we had huge numbers of swans, about 5000 in total, nearly evenly
split between Trumps and Whistling.

At the head of Padilla Bay, viewed from Samish Island, we had 300+ Eurasian
Wigeons.

On Bayview Rd, between Bayview and route 20, there was a Common Teal and a
hybrid Common x GW Teal in a tidal slough. The hybrid was in fine breeding (aka,
full basic) plumage and lacked vertical and horizontal stripes, but it had a
moderate amount of pale edging to head pattern and a pale breast (compared w/
GWTE).

In the giant Snow Goose flock on Fir Island there was one adult and one imm
Blue Goose.

For Skagit folks, we had 3 Least Sands at the Common Teal spot and a Thayer's
Gull just outside Sedro-Woolley on a lawn with some GW Gull mutts.

Cheers
Steven Mlodinow
Everett WA






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