Greetings, Tweeters,
As I mentioned in my last post, I just finished a week-long tour of NW
Wash. and SW BC. Many of our highlights were fairly common occurrences for
you locals, but I will share them anyway!

Our tour started in the Skagit Valley on Feb 4. We spent 3 nights in La
Conner, 2 nights in Delta, BC, and 1 night in Port Townsend. Favorites in
the Skagit area included the awesome flock of SNOW GEESE that overwinters
annually in the valley. They put on quite a show for us on our first two
days, including the evening of our arrival, when what may have been the
entire flock was right next to Fir Island Rd. Various fields in the Skagit
and Samish areas were filled with hundreds of TRUMPETER SWANS, but the only
TUNDRA SWANS we saw were along the beaches of the Skagit and Fraser deltas.
Of course, we saw what must have been hundreds of BALD EAGLES, with about
50 at once right near Edison, including 15 or so in the same grove of trees
near the junction of Bayview-Edison Rd and Farm to Market Rd. We only saw a
couple of ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS in the Samish Flats, and our only NORTHERN
SHRIKE was on Rollins Rd on Fir Island. We counted at least 6 SHORT-EARED
OWLS along the marshes of the Skagit delta.

We missed Redpolls in the Skagit/Samish area but did get excellent looks at
singing HUTTON'S VIREOS in the woods between the Skagit airport and Ovenell
Rd. North of the airport, on one of the blocked roads that leads into the
woods we found a couple PILEATED and 3 HAIRY WOODPECKERS, where a very bold
and vocal PACIFIC WREN also delighted our group. A couple VARIED THRUSHES


--
Stephen Shunk
Paradise Birding
P.O. Box 547
Sisters, OR 97759
www.paradisebirding.com
541-408-1753
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