Hi Tweets,

The South Snohomish County CBC was today. In the past I have worked
the Mukilteo wedge but today I got to cover the Edmonds wedge with
Ted Peterson and Dennis Duffy. I thought I'd share some highlights,
which may be of interest to Edmonds birders.

We started on the waterfront. While Ted and Dennis worked the Public
Pier I drove up to the Water Street access. My best birds there were
two Red-throated Loons. Then Steve Pink and Duane Karna drove up
behind me. We all looked surprised and they politely pointed out
that Water Street was in their wedge and always had been. We
grinned, I yielded my list to them and then headed back to catch up
with Ted and Dennis. Mutterings were made about where the boundary
really was, but at least the birds didn't get counted twice! And
this means that I get to help out in three wedges because I will be
owling in the Mukilteo wedge this evening.

Waterfront birds included Surf and Black Scoters, one Harlequin
drake, Pacific and Red-throated Loons, Brant, and Western Grebe.

We had two Varied Thrush at the Willow Creek Hatchery, one Yellow-
rumped Warbler on the Point Edwards public path, and a few good birds
at Chase Lake: Hermit Thrush, Purple Finch, Cooper's Hawk. My yard
gave us our second warbler species: Townsend's Warbler. The
Lynnwood golf course is reliable in winter for one Eurasian Wigeon,
but today we found two drakes among the large flock of American
Wigeons. The best bird of the day was a Thayer's Gull Dennis found
at Sprague Lake in Lynnwood, in the pond on the north side of 200th
Ave. Lake Ballenger had about 20 Common Mergansers, 5 Hooded
Mergansers, a few Lesser Scaup, and a Red-tailed Hawk flying
overhead, among other species. Echo Lake, just south of Aurora
Village, is reliable for Ruddy Ducks but none were to be seen today.

The only woodpecker species of our day was Northern Flicker. We had
a lead on a Red-breasted Sapsucker and checked twice for it but
didn't see it. The Cooper's and the Red-tail were our only raptors.
We did fairly well with sparrows: Lincoln's, White-crowned, Golden-
crowned, Fox, Song, Junco (including one Slate-colored in my yard),
Towhee. Ted said we came up with 73 species, which has been about the
average for the Edmonds wedge.

Good bird counting,

Carol Riddell
Edmonds