Hello Tweets,
I had to be in Everett tonight at six pm and rather than fight two hours of
traffic I left a little early and birded the Everett Sewage Plant and a bit
of Spencer Island. As Blair Benson noted, there are incredible numbers of
ducks when you pass on the freeway and I was curious to see what they were.

The biggest surprise was a lone Barn Swallow flying on the east side of the
huge pond. The bird had a pure white belly with no color as far as I could
tell. Their seemed to be a purple strap across it's chest as well, but the
lighting and speed of the bird left that ambiguous. Tail size seemed
shorter than a typical Barn Swallow, which is the opposite of what Sibley
describes. I know that Ann Marie Wood logged a couple pale breasted Barn
Swallows in eBird recently in Skagit co. What is the likely hood that these
are the Eurasian subspecies?

The ducks present were mostly Pintails and Shovelers, but large numbers of
Ruddy, Ring-necked, Mallard, Greater and Lesser Scaup, and Wigeon were
present. I believe there were a couple of Eurasian Wigeon mixed in with the
Americans.

Also present was a Herring Gull along with large numbers of Mew,
Bonapartes, GW, and hybrids.

Josh Adams
Lynnwood, WA
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