Yesterday, 3/19, I got to Wenzel Slough Rd about 9:30 am, and found a
flock of about 30 gulls that included a bird that matched the
third-cycle SLATY-BACKED GULL in all the recent photos. I only got a
brief look before it wandered off into the grass and disappeared over
the rise, and then the whole flock took off to the west. I didn't have
time to scan the flock in detail; had I arrived five minutes later, and
I would have missed the whole lot. I stopped again on my way home in
the late afternoon, but there were no gulls in the fields at all, either
there or on the Brady Loop, only some disgruntled birders from
California.

I looked for the EMPEROR GEESE on Hwy 101 near South Bend, but didn't
see them. I met a birder from West Virginia who had been looking for a
couple of hours, without success. There were hundreds and hundreds of
CACKLING GEESE in the fields and flying over. Also worth seeing was the
big flock of maybe 200 (?) swallows just west of the Potter Slough
bridge, many of them perched in the grass and low bushes in the field.
Most of them were TREE SWALLOWS, with a few VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS mixed
in. This was the most swallows I've seen at one time so far this year.

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
RachelWL at msn.com