Hi Tweets,

I just dragged home (12-17-11) from a day of galloping around our
portions of Smith and Spencer Islands in the Everett area. I was
working with Scott Atkinson on the North Snohomish County CBC. He said
he will post a comprehensive summary of the CBC after he has compiled
all the circle's species and numbers. He asked me to go ahead and
summarize some of our interesting observations from our area. We
covered the Everett STP's aeration ponds, the marsh to the east, the
tree farms north of 12th St., the Biringer farm, and the Union Slough
salt marsh.

Of greatest interest to us were the 76 Lincoln's Sparrows. They were
popping up everywhere and came in second to a couple of hundred Song
Sparrows. We had very low numbers of Zonotrichias and those were just
the White-crowneds and Golden-crowneds. We did have 15-20 Savannah
Sparrows. Scott heard two Swamp Sparrows.

Among the many raptors (Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, and one
Cooper's) we had a Harlan's Red-tailed at the tree farm north of 12th
St.

We had six Virginia Rails and one Sora at the marsh east of the
aeration ponds. There were 15 Dunlin and 50 Dowitchers, presumably all
Long-billed, at the Union Slough salt marsh. Gull numbers were low
throughout our area although we did manage one Thayer's and one
Western among the many hybrids and Mew Gulls.

Warblers were limited to several Yellow-rumpeds and a couple of Orange-
crowneds. We dipped on Common Yellowthroat where we hoped to find it
along Steamboat Slough on Spencer Island. While we could not locate a
Barn Owl in its expected location at the Biringer farm, we did get a
Short-eared Owl there to add to a Great Horned and a Barred within our
area. Again at Biringer farm, we had nine Western Meadowlarks but
dipped on American Pipit as the area where they have been found on
previous counts was dry.

Good birding,

Carol Riddell
Edmonds