Hi Tweets,

I headed north early this morning to go birding and drove until I was out of the fog just north of Bellingham. I ended up in Blaine with some nice bird sightings at the fishing pier. There were around 4 pair of Long-tailed Ducks, a large raft of Scaups ( couldn't tell if they were Greater or Lesser), Common Loons, Pintails, Goldeneyes, Red-breasted Mergansers, Horned Grebes, & various Gulls. I then started making my way south again. Lots of Raptors on my southward journey, Rough-legged Hawk, Coopers Hawk, Northern Harriers, numerous sightings of Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks. I ended up at the end of Rawlins Road looking for Short-eared Owls, they were not as plentiful as I have seen in the past but there were a few around. On the way home just off Fir Island Road there were about 1000 Snow Geese eating their end of day meal. The sight of thousands of these species never ceases to amaze me. It was a perfect ending to a glorious day. Photos on my FLICK site in the Jan 23, 2009 Outing set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdhouse_wa/<http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdhouse_wa/>

Doug Parrott
Edmonds Wa
bird_cage at msn.com<mailto:bird_cage at msn.com>