Subject: [Tweeters] Edison Slough Eurasian "Common" Teal still present
Date: Jan 25 11:56:44 2009
From: Kathy Andrich - chukarbird at yahoo.com



Hi Tweeters,

I refound the Eurasian Teal yesterday in the Edison Slough at a vantage point I had not been to before. There is a gravel lot behind the great Farm to Market bakery in Edison where you can get a wonderful view up and down the slough. Many thanks to Ryan Merrill & co. who first reported this bird on the 16th. I have seen the mixed plumage teals before but this was finally my first one without any vertical white line at all and a very strong horizontal line. I only saw 4 of the Edison area Eurasian Collared-Doves. They were enjoying the sun in a tall deciduous tree.

I was hoping for a 5 corvid day but missed the Valentine road Blue Jay. I left a little later than I was hoping for but couldn't resist looking for the Western Scrub-jays in Kent. First I found a mixed flock of mostly Bushtits. They did an alarm call and I was looking for an accipter but a scrub-jay flew in and after some further observation it was clear the jay was elicting the alarm response from the bushtits. Very interesting behavior. The other 3 corvids I saw were Am. Crow, Com. Raven, and Steller's Jay. Looking in Sibley's the Wa state corvid grand slam would also include Gray Jay, Clark's Nutcracker, and Black-billed Magpie as well the above mentioned corvids. The location of the Kent Scrub-jay was at the south end of Kent pond across 64th (east side) where the powerline trail extends a short ways by some warehouses.

I also dipped on the Tufted Duck but really liked going someplace new, I had no idea Washington had a Lake Erie. A female Common Merganser had a sizable fish for her on the lake and another one was trying to steal it from her. It was going to take some work for the merganser to get the fish swallowable and I never saw the outcome of the chase. She might have expended as much energy as was contained in the fish trying to keep her rival away. On the way there a Merlin and small bird were trying to outmaneuver each other over Hwy 20.

Other spots and things I saw included about 60 Snow Geese flying south over the Marysville Public Works area. The West 90 was loaded with Rough-legged Hawks including a dark morph, a few N. Harriers and Red Tails and a scad of eagles all over Samish Flats and in what bit of Fir Island I birded. One of the Rough-legs at W90 landed on a pole near a "field heron" and the heron took offense. The "field herons" were all over too, and it was fun to watch these Great Blue Herons hunt in the open fields using their stalking skills in a different way than when fishing.

At the Valentine Road Blue Jay spot the owner was very gracious and invited me to sit on the porch to see her amazing feeding situation. Just across the street was a European Starling that had quite a vocabulary and it did Western Meadowlark very well along with Bald Eagle and Pine Sisken of all things. Best bird at the feeding stations was a White-throated Sparrow.

Kathy
Roosting in Kent, near Lake Meridian
(chukarbird at yahoo dot com)
Any driving directions contained within this message are given as a courtesy, beware, author is directionally challenged and will not vouch for them.