Subject: [Tweeters] SAS Whidbey Island Trip
Date: Dec 6 16:07:18 2012
From: Paul Webster - paul.webster at comcast.net


Hi Tweets,

Yesterday, Wednesday December 5, Barbara and I were joined by a group of 5
hardy, experienced birders for what is becoming our annual Seattle Audubon
Society winter field trip to Whidbey Island. The temperature was in the low
to mid 40s and we had bright sunshine most of the day. We started in Skagit
County with brief stops at Pass Lake and Rosario Beach State Park. On
Whidbey Island we visited a windy and flooded Ala Spit, then the lake on
Dike Road at Dugualla Bay, the Oak Harbor Marina, and several stops on the
Island's west side before checking in at Penn Cove. Then we drove back to
the west side for Crockett Lake, with just time remaining for the Lincoln
Street marsh and shoreline near Deer Lagoon. We logged 77 total species for
the day, with 30 in Skagit County and 74 on Whidbey Island.

We failed to locate Barrow's Goldeneye, generally our last winter duck to
arrive in large numbers, but we did find 22 species of ducks, geese, and
swans. We also found our 3 standard winter loons, including scores of
Red-throateds at Rosario and down the west side of Whidbey. The Great Egret
at Dugualla Bay we saw on Sunday was still there, and we had good numbers
of Surfbird, Black Turnstone, and Dunlin at the Oak Harbor Marina, joined
by a surprising Long-Tailed Duck -- the last a species we also found in its
more usual deep-water location off Joseph Whidbey State Park. At Crockett
Lake we found a beautiful Short-eared Owl perched on a stick between the
highway and the lake, and a Peregrine Falcon dropped in there and mixed it
up briefly with intended prey and two Northern Harriers.

Lots of good birds out there!

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.webster AT comcast.net
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