Yesterday (12.13.10) Steve Pink and I birded Whidbey Island and a bit on the Samish Flats.

Whidbey Island was productive, as always. The highlight there was 2 ROCK SANDPIPERS, seen on the floating platforms at Penn Cove. It took some time and effort to "dig them out" of the multitude of DUNLIN and the numerous BLACK TURNSTONES and SURFBIRDS. As we left Penn Cove, a MERLIN left a distant tall snag and flew purposefully, at light speed toward a target that was unknown to us.

We arrived too late on the Samish Flats to witness the rodent carnage that others who had been there earlier told us about. But who gets tired of seeing all of the RED-TAILED HAWKS and ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS in all of their respective variations? They were extremely active as were the many NORTHERN HARRIERS and a SHORT-EARED OWL or 2. The end of our day was punctuated by the Harlan Twins. Near the East 90 (along Bayview Edison Rd east of Samish Island Rd) we spotted a juv HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK. Unlike most Harlans in my experience, this bird remained perched long enough for me to get set up and take some digiscoped images. Then it took flight to the north. Before it had departed, Steve had spotted another dark buteo perched in the distance to the south. That bird flew towards us and perched where the previous bird had just been. This second bird looked nearly identical to the one that had just departed. It lingered briefly, but I got a couple of fuzzy images. I've put images of both birds on pbase. The links are:
http://www.pbase.com/marvbreece/image/131136579
http://www.pbase.com/marvbreece/image/131136581

Good birding, stay dry and don't blow away.


Marv Breece
Seattle, WA
mbreece at earthlink.net