Subject: [Tweeters] Skagit/Samish and Tufted Duck
Date: Feb 7 22:09:12 2009
From: Charlie Wright - c.wright7 at comcast.net


Hello All,
Bruce LaBar and I led a good-sized field trip from Tahoma Audubon to Skagit County today. The morning started out foggy but quickly cleared into a very pleasant, if chilly, day.
We started out at Skagit Game Range HQ in the fog, where we saw a Great Horned Owl between the two parking lots but didn't find much sparrow activity. Also on Fir Island was one immature Northern Shrike. We continued on, stopping at the Blue Jay site on Valentine Road (via a pair of Wood Ducks on Dodge Valley). The Valentine Road house produced a White-throated Sparrow among many great views of common birds.

At Bayview State Park we had about 6 or 7 Eurasian Wigeons, our only ones all day. In the Samish Flats we had perhaps a dozen Rough-legged Hawks, a Harlan's Hawk at Sullivan and Bayview-Edison Roads, 3 Short-eared Owls at West-90, and 7 EUC Doves near Edison.

In the afternoon we headed to Mount Erie. We enjoyed the scenery here but had no luck with any crossbills. On our way out we stopped and scanned the lake for a while, and finally found the female TUFTED DUCK with many scaup across the lake. The bird afforded brief but satisfactory views as it continuously foraged.

That's all for now.
--
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington