No mystery raptor near the confluence of Moore and Best Rds. on Fir
Island, but the fields and the sky were filled to the brim with many
thousands of Snow Geese yesterday (Sun. Feb.20) at around 4 - 4:30
p.m. Lots of cars, oglers and photographers, too. Any of you see
this, too? I would love to have an idea of how many birds were there
- my fingers got sore from trying to count!

Another note from Fir Island: the Wylie Slough Black Phoebe was still
calling out and flitting about in the same areas near the boat-launch
parking lot that others have mentioned. I was there at about 3:30
p.m. A man who also was there looking for the phoebe, said he's seen
it there since August - it surely must be finding enough flies, but it
sure seems improbable on these frigid days!

And one more note - West 90 Short-eared Owls are still flopping about
- from the path, I saw perhaps 3-6, but others, who had been out in
the south field area, thought they saw maybe 6-10. I only saw a few
harriers out there. Some folks who came in from the fields said
they'd watched an owl/harrier tussle, with a few feathers flying.

There was some owl barking (and a report of some coyotes yipping or
howling, which I only heard once), and, as I stayed on past sunset, I
thought at one point I heard a nearby double wing-clap. But a bit
later, I heard more similar sounds and discovered they had come from
ducks landing hard in the nearby marshy ponds!!! I had wanted to hear
that owl sound, so I jumped to the conclusion that I had. But, you
know, since I never saw either an owl or a duck at that time (it was
quite dark) and just heard the sounds, who's to say I didn't hear a
wing clap?! :-)

It was fairly wind-free in those 2 places yesterday, but still quite
cold. And no precipitation! A nice Skamish afternoon...


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net