Tweets,

Last Saturday, Scott Ramos and I led a group of eight very enthusiastic birders on a Seattle Audubon Society field trip to Lake Terrell, Birch Bay, Semiahmoo, Drayton Harbor, Blaine and Boundary Bay, during which we were able to identify 84 species - a great count for a rewarding day. The highlights of the trip were the 21 Snowy Owls counted at Boundary Bay, along with the 16 Short-eared Owls and 15 Northern Harriers feeding, resting and interacting in the fields behind the dike at Boundary Bay. Richard Frank found a Northern Shrike lurking in a small tree near the dike, and two Rough-legged Hawks and a handful of Yellow-rumped Warblers added to the excitement at that site at the end of the day.

The day began with Redheads, Lesser and Greater Scaup and a scattering of decoys among other ducks at Lake Terrell. More time on the ground would have yielded additional passerines beyond the Bewicks Wren, chickadees, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and sparrows we found, but we were anxious to move on to Birch Bay, where we found all of the scoter species and were rewarded with the high keening breeding call of Black Scoters and close-up views of White-winged Scoters fishing and eating shellfish. Red-throated Loons were joined by Pacific and Common Loons on the Bay, and we were also able to get good looks at Long-tailed and Harlequin Ducks. Large flocks of Brant floated far out on the bay, and a foray into the forest above the beach gave us a chance to identify a Brown Creeper, Pacific Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a fly-over of Pine Siskins.

Semiahmoo Spit was another good stop, where we had a great looks at one of the resident Black Oystercatchers, a Peregrine Falcon watching from the spit's water tower, and what appeared to be Canada Geese of both moffitti and parvipes subspecies. We saw and heard Long-tailed Ducks on the Boundary Bay side of the spit, and watched flocks of Dunlin and Sanderling flying above congregations of Pelagic and Double-crested Cormorants on Drayton Harbor. Barrow's Goldeneyes were found among the pilings at the end of the spit, Black-turnstones were roosting on the pilings, and we had good looks at Red-breasted Mergansers and Red-throated Grebes at the same location.

At the Blaine Marina we added an Eared Grebe to our list of species, giving us an almost complete set of grebes for the day (only Clark's Grebes were missing from our list). We were surprised when a Northern Harrier strafed the gulls and ducks at the end of the dock, and a Cooper's Hawk similarly caused consternation among the Dunlin roosting on the breakwater.

It appears that this year's movement of Snowy Owls will be almost as large as last year's, which is drawing large crowds of people with big lenses to Boundary Bay. It was nice to see many of these people closely watching the Short-eared Owls behind the dike, many of which were barking and flying or sitting very close to the dike. If you are hankering for a good look at Snowy and Short-eared Owls, the 72nd street entrance to Boundary Bay Provincial Park is about as good a viewing site as you're going to find in the region right now.