Hi All,

George Gerdts, Jamie Acker and I birded spots on Bainbridge Island
(B.I.) yesterday with most of our time spent on the south-side of the
island. When the heavy rains set-in just around 4:30 PM we had tallied
just over 100 species for the day - not too shabby for a November outing
here in the Puget Sound area. We had a handful of interesting highlights
for the day:

TRUMPETER SWAN - twelve flying south low over the water on the
east-side of the Island. There is only a handful of records for them
here on B.I.

BLACK SCOTER - just shy of 50 at the se. side of the Island. We are
fortunate to have a healthy winter concentration of them here and it is
always a joy to listen to their strange vocalizations.

BROWN PELICAN - one flying north on the east-side of the island. There
have been fewer reports of them this year in the Puget Sound compared to
previous years.

NORTHERN HARRIER - male flying north. Rarely do we see them foraging at
spots here on B.I. We seem to just get a few a year as flyover transients.

RUDDY TURNSTONE - one at s.e. side of the island and likely the same one
observed back in early Oct. I think it is frequenting Blakely Rock as a
high tide roost. Lovely bird looking to be still in juvenile plumage.

ANCIENT MURRELET - two flying north with two Rhinoceros Auklets on
e-side of the island. Looks like a few are making it into the
south/central Puget Sound.

YELLOW WARBLER - one at the s.e. side of the island - way late!! With
our quick first viewings, we almost passed it off as a bright
Orange-Crowned Warbler. But subsequent point-blank looks revealed its
true identity and the faint red breast streaks would seem to make it a
first-fall male. Although I suppose a fall adult female could show this
breast streaking. Something for me to investigate!

TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS - We had at least ten total between 3 separate
healthy-sized feeder flocks at spots at the south side of the island and
I'm guessing we missed a handful.

A few other locally uncommon species such as Cackling Goose (one
minima), Gadwall, Eared Grebe, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover,
Hairy Woodpecker, Red Crossbill, and Evening Grosbeak made it into our
tally for the day. Yes, Gadwall and Coot are hard-to-find species here
on B.I.!

Cheers and good birding,
Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com