Tweeters,

Yesterday, October 13, I made another short visit to Skagit County to look
for shorebirds at Jensen Access. Although the tide was favorable for most
of the afternoon and there were lots of shorebirds present, the only
moderately rare species I could find were two AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVERS, which
spent quite a bit of time in the fields just northwest of the parking area,
south of Maupin Road. A NORTHERN SHRIKE was also seen repeatedly nearby.

However, I hit the jackpot with EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES. In between two
visits to Jensen, I decided to see if I could find some Collared-Doves in
the Stanwood area.
(I still hadn't seen one in Snohomish County.) I ended up seeing 23
Collared-Doves at 3 locations between Conway and the Stillaguamish River, as
follows:

Flock of 13 at Conway (Skagit Co.)-- along Pioneer Highway, immediately
south of the turnoff to Conway. I've often seen flocks of Mourning Doves in
the past at this spot (none yesterday), and there were about 50 ROCK PIGEONS
nearby.

Flock of 9 south of Stanwood but north of the Stillaguamish River (along
Marine Drive south of Florence Road but north of Boe Road, Snohomish Co.)--
same location where Greg Toffic saw 10 of them about 10 days ago.

Single bird along Old Pacific Highway, north of Stanwood but about a mile
south of the junction with Pioneer Highway (Snohomish Co.).

Skagit County seems to be the population center for Eurasian Collared-Doves
in western Washington. In addition to Conway, I have seen them repeatedly at
3 other locations: in and near the small town of Edison, in the even
smaller nearby town of Blanshard on Highway 11, and along Bradshaw Road west
of Mount Vernon. Collared-Doves are also being seen regularly in numbers at
3 localities near Vancouver, BC. However, I have yet to see one in Whatcom
County, although there have been a few sightings there.

It will be interesting to watch the increase and expansion of Eurasian
Collared-Doves as they populate most of lowland western Washington, which I
expect they will do within a few years.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net