Tweeters,
Kevin Steiner and I birded in Skagit county 2/8-2/11. We were hoping to see the BLUE JAY on Valentine Road after having failed several times to see the one in Port Hadlock a few years ago. We were in the area late on the 8th and thought to locate the address for a return visit the next morning when Randy spotted us driving by (He has learned how to spot birders) and invited us in. Wendy & Randy showed us around their wonderful very birdy yard and invited us back to look for the jay the next morning. One could not ask for more gracious, welcoming and patient hosts for a rare bird. Thanks to them I got a life bird the next day. Wendy is a very talented bird artist and we prevailed on her to show us her work on porcelain and tile.

For the poster looking for the big flock of SNOW GEESE, we found them in the same area that we found them last winter--north of Conway, between Dike Road on the west and the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks (& Conway Frontage Road next to I-5) on the east, just south of West Stackpole Road, north of Peter Johnson Road. Another day we found a much smaller flock on Maupin Road, south of Rawlins Road.

On the 8th we found a possible PRAIRIE FALCON on Memorial Drive, a KESTREL on Chilberg Lane (plus a Red-tailed Hawk, a Rough-legged Hawk, a Harrier, Bald Eagles and a hawk we could not ID), a PEREGRINE on Bayview-Edison Road and the reliable MERLIN in Edison. We bemoaned the fact that no one (as yet) had reported a Gyrfalcon in the county and though we parked a few moments to look at the swans behind Edison school, we had to settle for a 3 or 4 falcon day.

About the possible Prairie Falcon--while in a hurry to get somewhere, driving east on Memorial Drive (SR 536 west of Mount Vernon), Kevin spotted a falcon being driven off a post by an eagle. In the rearview mirror he saw it cross the highway and thought it carried prey. We turned around and while driving back, I was able to locate it taking off from a tree in the distance. It was flying with shallow wingbeats alternating with glides. During two of the glides, it lowered its legs and fed from the prey it carried. It landed in a tall fir behind the Bible Baptist Church where we parked to scope it for a few minutes. While we watched, it regurgitated chunks of its meal several times. We were flipping between the illustrations of juvenile Tundra Peregrine & Prairie Falcon in the big Sibley's as we scoped. The head with its dark crown, light supercilium, narrow strip of white behind the eye and mustache matching the nape color sure seemed most like the Prairie Falcon. Unfortunately, we neglected to check the wingtip/tail lengths. We would appreciate hearing if anyone sees and IDs a falcon in that area.



Sandy Daniels - Enumclaw plateau

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