Tweets,



I led a group of birders yesterday to the Samish Flats and other points
north of Seattle. The scene around the Samish west and east 90's in late
morning to early afternoon was unlike anything I've seen in 3 decades of
birding in that area. With much of the weedy field areas underwater,
especially at the east 90, Bald Eagles were standing in concentrated picket
lines in some fields and and scattered over other field areas. Between the
west and east 90, there were easily 100+ eagles, and the "eagle tree" just
south of the Samish River crossing had up to 24 eagles perched in it at any
one time. The number of Northern Harriers in the same area was somewhat
higher than I've ever seen there too, several dozen. We saw the same
Harlan's Hawk reported by Marv Breece. Short-eared Owls were notably absent
from view.

It would be interesting to know where this many eagles
converged from so quickly. Last Monday when I visited the Samish Flats,
there were far fewer in this particular area, and mid-December seems a bit
early in the season for the up-river eagle concentrations to have moved down
to the flats. No doubt Bud Anderson would know the typical dates for this,
but I recall it being a bit later in the winter on average. Perhaps
flooding upstream induced more bald eagles to move downstream to the Flats,
or these birds converged from other areas nearby.

By the way, the northwest portion of the Port Susan Bay flats, including the
wildlife area along West Pass and the fields just south of Stanwood toward
Boe Rd.

appeared to all be underwater, including most of the roadways.



Good birding, Bob



Bob Sundstrom

Tenino, WA

ixoreus at scattercreek.com