(my apology for hitting the send button too early on the message below;
this is the continuation)

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 10:40 AM, Stephen Shunk
<steve at paradisebirding.com>wrote:

> 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 and an eye-level flock of GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS were a nice
> consolation for the absence of the redpolls along Blue Heron Rd on Samish
> island.
>

Birding Rosario Head on Fidalgo Island never disappoints. Here we saw our
first HARLEQUIN DUCKS, RED-NECKED GREBE and RHINOCEROUS AUKLET, as well as
2 BLACK TURNSTONES. There were a number of PIGEON GUILLEMOTS off the point,
and we were able to study BRANDT'S, PELAGIC, and DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS
at various spots along the trail.

Birch Bay was a bit quiet in the gorgeous weather, making me secretly wish
it was a little stormier during our visit! We saw zero Black Scoters on the
bay and only a couple LONG-TAILED DUCKS there, although we had excellent
study of WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS and HARLEQUIN DUCKS. There were also few
loons out there, but they were all COMMON LOONS.

The big highlight of our trip was at Boundary Bay, where we got to see the
SNOWY OWL swarm 3 days in a row. The first night, we saw about 20 birds and
they were widely dispersed across the marshy fringe of the bay; also
scattered around the marsh were MANY photographers, taking advantage of the
gorgeous weather. The next day, it was raining and the cameras were all but
absent. This correlated with our much closer owl-viewing distance, with
birds much closer to the dyke. The next morning, still raining, we had 20
SNOWIES just off the dyke and another 7 a little ways off, and again no
photographers. Our other big highlight here was a very close swarm of about
5000 DUNLIN. At one point the birds put on quite a show, with their pulsing
flight waves, likely in response to the PEREGRINE FALCON we saw diving
straight into the flock, reducing the Dunlin flock to 4999 :) In all, we
saw probably 10000 DUNLIN across the flats. The dyke trail also gave us
good looks at AMERICAN TREE SPARROW and LINCOLN'S SPARROW.

Reifel Sanctuary is always productive, with "tame" SANDHILL CRANES and
closeup looks at many ducks. We also had stunning looks at the BARRED OWL
that has been reported there, with the bird perched in the open just a few
feet over the trail. WOOD DUCKS made a good showing, and we had a PURPLE
FINCH here as well.

Our ferry ride from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay started with a bang, when we
got excellent looks at an ARCTIC LOON just outside the outbound jetty. The
rest of the trip was pretty slow, although we saw many PACIFIC LOONS and
COMMON MURRES as we entered the first narrow channel. By the time we got to
the island, it was raining pretty hard and our efforts to find Skylarks in
the bulb fields went for naught. It was dark and rainy across the Straight
of Juan de Fuca, so we didn't get much birding in, although we had
excellent looks at THAYER'S GULLS flying with the boat.

Our next ferry, from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island was productive for
MARBLED MURRELETS, with a couple dozen birds seen. Although we did not find
and Ancient Murrelets, we were thrilled with a large pod of HARBOR PORPOISE
feeding just before we reached Whidbey. We were on a bit of a tight
schedule to get to Sea-Tac on Friday, so didn't have much else of note.

In all, we tallied 114 species for the week. Thanks for all the excellent
reports over the last few weeks from all of you. We could not have had such
a successful trip without the local support.
Steve Shunk


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


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