As a new member of Tweeters living on San Juan Island, the recent
reports of all the raptor and waterfowl activity in Skagit County were
simply too much to pass up. Today I made my first-ever birding trip
through Skagit County, and over the course of the afternoon saw 36
species. While I missed the tufted duck at Lake Erie (many of the ducks
were too far away on the lake to get a close enough look at), I did see
the short-eared owls on Fir Island that were the highlight of my day.
Other top finds were the hundreds of swans (both tundra and trumpeter),
at least a thousand snow geese, two purple finches on Valentine Road,
and close encounters with an American kestrel, red-tailed hawks, and
bald eagles. Overall I covered Lake Erie, Fidalgo Bay, Padilla Bay,
Skagit Flats, and Fir Island.

See some photographic highlights of the raptors (and help me ID a
mystery hawk) on my blog at http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com, and a
complete species list is below:

Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) ?
Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus) 500
American Wigeon (Anas americana) 300
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 50
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) 35
Green-Winged Teal (Anas crecca) 40
Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) 100
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) 2
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) 2
Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) 6
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) 8
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) 10
Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) 6
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 10
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) 3
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) 1
Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) 50
Unidentified gull (Larus sp.) 10
Rock Dove (Columba livia) 15
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 1
Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) 3
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 5
Common Raven (Corvus corax) 1
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) 3
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) 8
Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) 1
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 250
Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius) 1
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 150
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) 1
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 4
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) 10
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 10
Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) 30
Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus) 2
House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) 6

Total number of species seen: 36

Cheers,
Monika Wieland
Friday Harbor, WA
monika.wieland at gmail.com