Fishing's gonna be pretty good as the water recedes.

On Dec 14, 2010, at 11:39 AM, Bob Sundstrom wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
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