Subject: [Tweeters] Everett-Marysville CBC 12/27: highlights (long)
Date: Dec 30 11:22:18 2009
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com



Tweeters:

Taken together with Gene's Baikal Teal report, and a strong teal presence on the Everett-Marysville CBC, guess it's teal time.

The Everett-Marysville CBC was held this last Sunday. Weather was clear and chilly in the early hours (21 F. at Arlington), but warmed to 49 F. afternoon. The species count is at 135, down by 5 from last year's record, but we still have 1-2 observers to hear from. Most parties had less species than last year, and individual counts were down in a number of cases as well. The hotspot was, as usual, area 11 (low ground from the Everett STP north to Biringer Farm/Smith Island immediately south of Marysville), both for rarities and high individual counts.

GREATER WF GEESE were found at the Port of Everett and at Dagmar's Landing off I-5 this year. While frozen inland fresh water drove down duck numbers there, some numbers were very high in Area 11. Highlights included 5823 N. PINTAIL, over 1000 RING-NECKED DUCKS (most of the 1640 total), and 3384 AM. GREEN-WINGED TEAL, Mary Teesdale and Bill Davey tallying by far the most of these. With those kind of teal numbers, it made sense that two EUR. (COMMON) GW TEAL showed up at the Union Slough (the access visible right off the west side of I-5 near Marysville). And the blue-winged teals were again very well represented: 7 CINNAMON TEAL were at the Everett STP and another was at the Marysville STP, a BLUE-WINGED TEAL showed up for the 2nd year in a row near the Everett STP, and a BLUE-WINGED X CINNAMON TEAL drake was reported by the Jonathan Blubaugh party from the Lakewood/Square Lakes area near Smoky Pt. None of our recent field guides show Cinnamon Teal wintering here, but they have become annual over the last 5-7 years on these STPs; the BW Teal was our third for the CBC in 15 years. Rick Taylor had 4 REDHEAD on Spencer I back on Dec. 24; he thought he saw one one count day but wasn't certain, so we have a count-week entry.

In the same area and also defying recent field guides' wintering range depictions, a SORA braved the cold to respond to the tape at the end of 12th Street SE just north of the Everett STP. Shorebirds made a good showing on the CBC with 9 species and decent numbers, especially of W. SANDPIPER, DUNLIN and BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, and each of these were seen by several parties. 13 LEAST SANDPIPERS were tallied by three parties between the Marysville and Everett waterfronts. Also, we hit a record-high for Dowitchers with 61 (11 were certain LONG-BILLED), most of these at Union Slough.

For passerines, the CBC managed four warbler species, including a COM. YELLOWTHROAT at the s.w. shore of Spencer I. near the count's SSE edge. I've had birds here 3-4 other times in winter. The main passerine news, however, related to sparrows--there was an astounding 9 species at Biringer Farm (not including junco or towhee and 10 total for the CBC as a whole if you include count-week).

The highlight was an apparent GRASSHOPPER SPARROW in a massive horde of sparrows in the eastern-central part of the property. I say "apparent" because there is no earlier wWA winter encounter (or all of WA!) of which I'm aware. For Snohomish County, I think Steven Mlodinow had the sole earlier bird, one near the Norman Rd/Silvana in late Oct. several falls back. In any case, the sparrow jumped up between two of the 7 LINCOLN'S SPARROWS in the flock, and immediately apparent was the very short tail--plainly shorter than that of the Lincoln's. I also noticed right away that the bird was flat-headed, comparatively large-billed, and UNSTEAKED on the breast and flanks; the lores were buffy yellowish, but the supercilium was grayish behind the eye; the bird had a narrow little pale eye ring. This was a distinctly light-buffy bird overall, especially at the flanks, breast, head and face. The wing coverts and back/scaps were grayish-brown with darker streaks on the back. This furtive skulker didn't stay long at its low perch just above ground level, and it dropped down to the ground, disappearing. After this 11:30 am encounter, I flushed the bird again at about 2:30, but this time the bird only allowed for a good look at the buffy yellowish, unstreaked flanks, and clean white belly and undertail coverts, as it flushed and flew away low at point-blank range. It quickly dropped into cover and was not seen again.

The Biringer sparrow flock also included 17 WHITE-CROWNED, 3 GOLDEN-CROWNED, 1 tan-striped WHITE-THROATED, the 7 LINCOLN'S, 3 SAVANNAH, and about 25 SONG SPARROWS, along with perhaps 25 DE JUNCOS, amongst which was one SLATE-COLORED type. Just north of this group, closer to the barn and residence near the north dike (and loosely associated with the main group), there were 8 more WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, 4 more LINCOLN'S, 6 more SAVANNAH, a few more SONG and--a bright AM. TREE SPARROW, one of few we've had for the CBC.

Other interesting area sparrows included a SWAMP heard-only on Saturday, Dec. 26, along the Snohomish River opposite Langus Waterfront park, but it could not be relocated on the 27th for the CBC. This is private, Burlington Northern RR property. Finally, Maxine Reid had an interesting FOX SPARROW out on the Tulalip Reservation that was very rufous overall, details await.

Observers can call the Biringer Farm (425-259-0255) to obtain access--normally they are really favorable toward birders but it can be difficult to reach them by phone. The main sparrow flock is immediately north of the dense row of low planted conifers running east-west near the eastern extreme of the property (NOT the one visible next to I-5). This area is weeded over with Chenopodium, Amaranthus, Avena and other graminoids to about 2'-4' height by an area that had been used earlier for Rubus (Logan or Raspberry) cultivation.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com


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