Subject: [Tweeters] birding skagit
Date: Nov 9 18:39:04 2008
From: Zack & Sam Riley - samzack98 at gmail.com


today my friend peter klein and i went birding around fir island and
samish flats. the highlight of the day was at least two pine
grosbeaks at the skagit game range. we saw one female and heard
atleast one more (ther may have been others calling too) on the other
side of the road. they were between the two parking lots (probably
closer to the one with the boat launch) on both sides of the road.
other highlight birds that we saw at the game range included two
orange-crowned warblers, long-billed dowitchers, greater yellowlegs,
northern shrike, and a white-throated sparrow.

in the field just outside the game range there were a couple least
sandpipers mixed in with hundreds of killdeer. there were also two
peregrine falcons sitting in the fields there and a merlin on prey.

on the way to the west 90 we stopped at a huge flock of blackbirds. at
one point while we were there between 4 telephone poles we had a
peregrine falcon, a rough-legged hawk, and a red-tail. from that
point we also had amazing looks at a harlans red-tailed hawk. at west
90 we saw atleast six short-eared owls. there were also savannah
sparrows there and we heard a virginia rail.

the last highlight was on the way home going through edison where we
saw a eurasian collared-dove sitting on a wire.

-sam riley