On Tuesday, four of us did our annual May Birdathon, covering all of Whidbey Island. Last year we had a record 108 species, but we blew that away with 112 species on Tuesday.?It was wet and rainy from about 6 - 10 a.m. and then it cleared up and was nice and sunny the rest of the day. Highlights included our first stop at the Ewing's Road ponds which are always productive. We saw 5 species of swallows, heard a VIRGINIA RAIL?calling, the usual OSPREY?showed up, a large number of waterfowl included CINNAMON TEAL, PIED-BILLED GREBE?and AMERICAN COOT.?Sunlight Beach Road area gave up WESTERN & LEAST SANDPIPER, GREATER SCAUP, HOODED MERGANSER, WESTERN KINGBIRD. The Earth Sanctuary had WOOD DUCK, YELLOW WARBLER, WESTERN TANAGER.



The Double Bluff park and ponds yielded GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, COMMON LOON, COMMON & RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, RUDDY DUCKS, NORTHERN PINTAIL, WHIMBREL, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS and a SORA was heard. At Holme's Harbor near Ferndale there were MOURNING DOVES which we usually see here and COMMON GOLDENEYE, and a calling RING-NECKED PHEASANT.



Admiral's Cove and Crockett Lake areas - WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, RED-THROATED LOON, RHINOCERUS AUKLET. Crockett L. was a bust for shorebirds, only a large number of ducks, nothing new, were seen. The Keystone Ferry area had HARLEQUIN DUCKS?and PIGEON GUILLEMOTS. We stopped for lunch at Fort Casey State Park. We ate at the lighthouse area as the picnic area was full of students. There we heard CALIFORNIA QUAIL? and saw HOUSE WREN and singing OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. Both of these are regularly seen in May when we visit.



Hastie L. road access produced our only BLACK OYSTERCATCHER and?BLACK SCOTERS. Nothing new was seen at Bos L., Oak Harbor marina, Dugualla Cove or the lake. We the left the island and went to Rosario Beach SP where we heard CASSIN'S VIREO and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET.?On the way back south, we stopped at the Skagit WMA and at a small wet area, we had more LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERs and two DUNLIN showing their black bellies. Our final pofitable stop was where we could view the east end of the Stanwood Sewage ponds. There we viewed thru the scopes two GREATER YELLOWLEGS, a REDHEAD duck, LESSER SCAUP, HORNED GREBE and five WILSON'S PHALAROPES.



At a number of areas on the trip we saw? a total of 16 RED-TAILED HAWKS, 10 BALD EAGLES, 3 OSPREY, 5 NORTHERN HARRIER and 2 TURKEY VULTURES.



Hugh Jennings

Bellevue, WA

h2ouzel AT comcast.net -- (note this is a new email address)