Hello Fellow Tweets,

I hope the New Year has been good to everybody! Kelly O'Rourke and I spent 3 wonderful days birding the Skagit/Samish Flats, Drayton Harbor, and Reifel.

One of our highlights was a life bird for both of us, a Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch on the SemiAhmoo spit road leading to the resort. We don't know much about this bird (other than its gorgeous!) and was wondering if anyone could tell us more about it? Is it a rare find or have we just been overlooking it all these years (a real possibility!). Thanks in advance!

Here are some of the other highlights from our trip.

-5 Peregrines on the Skagit/Samish flats including one actively hunting some ducks.

-Beautiful pair of Long-tailed ducks in the SemiAhmoo Marina.

-All 3 Scoter species at SemiAhmoo

Reifel was pretty quiet but the day beautiful. Sunny but cold. They still have snow on the ground and the ponds are pretty much frozen so the waterfowl numbers were down except for those friendly Mallards (love those guys!).

Hoping for a great year for all Tweets!

Mark