Quenched some wanderlust yesterday with a visit to
the Semiahmoo split. Weather was iffy on the way
up from Seattle (with brief stops at Edmonds and
Skagit Valley where I had forgotten it was Tulip
Festival time so enjoyed the flowers but not the
birds). But weather was beautiful at Semiahmoo.
Worth the drive just for the sunshine. Nothing
extraordinary and missed Long Tailed Ducks which
was one motivation for the trip but still some
nice sightings: MANY MANY Surf Scoters and Scaup,
Red Breasted Mergensers, Common Loon, White Winged
Scoters, more than a handful of Harlequins, lots
of Pintails on the Drayton Harbor side, Mallards,
beautiful breeding plumaged Horned Grebes, Mew and
GW Gulls, Buffleheads, Bald Eagle, Red Tailed
Hawk, Savannah, Song, Golden and White Crowned
Sparrows, DC and Brandt's Cormorants, small groups
of Brant (as opposed to the very large groups at
Edmonds) and only two species of shorebirds. The
shorebirds were numerous (at least 20) Greater
Yellowlegs scattered all around in one's and
two's, and a fly by goup of perhaps a dozen
peepish sized sandpipers that were NOT Dunlin but
were otherwise unidentifiable. The only
"sighting" that might be of note, and I am about
90% sure, was what I believe was a Turkey Vulture
about 5 miles south of the turnoff to Semiahmoo
along I-5. Saw the bird out of the corner of the
windshield as I was traveling North. Just one of
those passing looks without binos and I could not
stop to check it out, but pretty certain I saw the
appropriate dihedral soaring wing pattern with
trailing white at the back of both wings. I do
not know how this matches with timing for this
bird in the area but I have not seen any other
TV's yet this year anywhere on the Westside of the
Cascades. And just as a fitting end to the day,
about a block from home in the Laurelhurst area of
Seattle, 4 mature bald eagles flew right over my
car, perhaps 100 feet up, matching exactly the
number of Eagles seen on my excursion earlier in
the day.