spike and i went up to the flats today. stopped south of stanwood on the
way up and there were ten or fifteen eagles hanging around the trees at the
end of the road in front of the boat launch. fir island was bereft of snow
geese -- swans, si, geese, no. we got to the samish flats around two,
expecting to see dunlin and peregrines, but saw neither. being close to
edison, we scored a cinnamon roll and doubled back. by that time the wind
was gusting hard enough to shake the car. a guy coming by on a motorcycle
was hanging off the handlebars on the upwind side to keep the bike upright.
about that time we saw a young eagle (looked like second full year) standing
on the ground stick its arms out and just tuck up its feet and shoot about
30 or 40 feet straight up in the air, do a little jog to its left and land
about thirty yards from where it started, never flapping its wings at all.
lots of other raptors and some crows (and maybe a raven or two, but i just
couldn't verify a diamond shaped tail) were jukeing and jinking all over the
place. the northern harriers were in hog heaven. at the dnr parking lot
near the tee intersection, we saw a very large flock of dunlin, finally,
riding the wind waves toward samish island. a short way behind them a
single merlin shadowed the formation. several red tails and a lone male
american kestrel hung grimly onto wires nearby.

fun to watch, but not much in the way of photo ops -- putting a camera on a
tripod would have been the kiss of death for the camera, and even the car
wasn't a stable platform.

regards,

t

--
dave templeton
fall city, wa

crazydave65atgmaildaughtcom

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today; it's already tomorrow
in Australia." Charles Schultz
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