I spent several hours yesterday driving around the
Skagit and Skamish areas. The primary target was
the Gyrfalcon reported over the weekend, but I
also wanted to just cover area in the car without
dealing with hunters at the West 90 or the Game
Range. The weather varied from broken sunshine to
rain but was mostly not too bad although the
normal gray of December. I did not find the Gyr
although for a while I thought I had, but it was
still a fun day.

Not surprisingly there were raptors everywhere,
LOTS of swans, a bazillion ducks and at least 3
bazillion Dunlin. Starting out coming through
Conway, I was amazed at the number of swans. Some
swans (more Tundra but also Trumpeters) were found
in Conway but groups were seen even up into the
Samish Flats area. I had three groups that each
had at least 250 birds and many more. I would
estimate somewhere between 1000 and 1200 birds
were seen altogether. I remember first birding
this area in the early 1970's and Trumpeters
especially were present only in small numbers.

It seemed that every muddy field had dozens (or
more) Mallards - sometimes with some other ducks
but I did not scope to identify. There were easily
1000+ Mallards...all smirking since they were
nowheres near the hunters.

I tried to keep specific track of the raptors seen
but lost track when in the Samish area (especially
Sullivan Road - and more on that below) Rough
Legs, Red Tails and Northern Harriers were flying
from pole to pole or field to field and it was
impossible to know which were duplicates. My best
guess is that I saw no fewer than 20 Red Tails, 18
Rough Legs, 20 American Bald Eagles (mostly
adult), and 25 Northern Harriers (only three
males). I also had 2 American Kestrels, a
Cooper's Hawk in an odd place, and THE FALCON.

I saw no owls but again did not spend time at
either Game Range and did not hit Stanwood and did
not drive the Coast.

Sullivan Road - what an experience!! This is
where the Gyr had been reported. It is a dead end
stretching less than a mile that runs east off of
Bayview Edison just below the West 90. I had
never been there so trying for the Gyr was a
natural. Immediately upon turning onto the road I
had a Rough Legged, 2 Red Tails and 2 Harriers.
Two Ravens were also in the field. The two
Harriers flew East to the next field (north side
of road) and joined two more Harriers. A little
further there were two furrowed fields (on
opposite sides of the road) that were literally
covered with Dunlin. The field to the north
probably had 1000-1500 and the field to the south
had at least twice that number and perhaps 3 or 4
times as many. I have never seen so many Dunlin
at one time...anywhere.

Hoping that the Dunlin might provide fodder for
the Gyr I spent at least 15 minutes there - but no
raptorial activity at all. So I moved on. Two
Eagles were in trees to the South and another was
on the ground on the ground in another field
further east (and north of road). As I got
towards the end of the road (house on the south)
there were two Rough Leggeds on what may have been
a dike. One was very light. As I stopped the car
and opened the door to get a scope for a closer
look and to scan the more distant area, a Cooper's
Hawk flushed from a ditch not more than 30 feet
from me and then flew first onto a telephone pole
and then a small tree next to the house. I was
amzed at how easily if buried itself into the
limbs and brambles of the tree where it could just
barely be made out.

Now with the scope in hand, I began to scan the
far ends of the fields...first north and then
South. I found two more Harriers and another
Rough Legged to the North. As I turned to the
South, I saw what was unmistakenly a very large
Falcon flying fast from West to East in pursuit of
what may have been some starlings. My heart beat
increased as I thought because of the size and
associating the area with the earlier spotting
that I had the GYR. It was a ways off but still
seemed too big to be anything else. Then it got
challenging. As I tried to get it into the scope,
it changed course seemingly now being hassled by
something else (crows? ravens?) and went straight
up onto a very distant perch atop one of the large
evergreens. It had its back to me and was
partially obscured but at 40X I could clearly see
that it was indeed a falcon and was large.
HOWEVER, it was seemingly very dark backed (not
good light) and at most there was only a partial
facial look and at best the moustache seemed low
contrast - less than a Peregrine. My camera
(Canon SX40) has high magnification but poor
resolution unless the light is very good (which it
most definitely was not). I took a couple of
blurry shots and then the bird was mobbed by
crows?/ravens? and it flew off to the east and not
found again. I originally had been pretty sure it
was the Gyr and certainly wanted it to be as I
have only seen one in Washington before.
BUT...even though it was so large, it could have
been a Peregrine. When I got home I noted that
the earlier reported bird was light phase (how
cool would that be...) AND with the aid of
photoshop I was able to push contrast just enough
to at least 90% convince myself that the
moustachial pattern was more consistent with
Peregrine. So no Gyr this day...

On the return back along Sullivan Road there was
another treat ahead. As I approached the two
fields with the Dunlin I saw all hell break loose
on the northern field. A Rough Legged Hawk was
flying amidst the chaos and took a Dunlin and
landed right on the side of the road where I
watched it pick it apart from a distance. ALL of
the North Field birds joined the South Field birds
and combined for a solid carpet of Dunlin that I
would estimate to be 150 yards by 100 yards (maybe
more) and had to have at least 5000 birds - maybe
many more. They flushed a couple of times but
resettled in the same field--quite a scene. I
tried to get nearer to the eating Rough Legged but
it took off when I got close enough for a
picture. I have a poor picture of it and after he
left I very good shot of the "remains".

All told I would put the count of birds on
Sullivan Road at something around 10 Harriers, 7
Rough Leggeds, 3 Red Tails and 4 Eagles, plus the
Coopers, the Falcon and a number of Raven and
thousands of Dunlin. No Gyr ... but pretty darn
cool!!!

Last comment. On the way up I had noticed what
seemed to be thousands of ducks on the Everett
Sewage Ponds. I did not stop to identify as a WSP
was on the road and I did not want to take the
chance. Has anyone checked them out lately?

--
Blair Bernson
Edmonds