Hi All,

Ryan Shaw and I checked a few locations in sw. Kitsap County yesterday.
Along with enjoying getting out after this snowy week, we found a few
interesting birds and we had a fair amount of sunshine in the process.
We concentrated our efforts mostly between the Gorst Estuary, Long Lake,
and Kitsap Lake.

At the Gorst Estuary, as viewed from behind Toys Topless, we had a nice
assortment of gulls and waterfowl. We could not re-locate a possible
Kumlien's Iceland Gull that I had the previous day, but there was a few
Thayer's Gulls and Herring Gulls (can be tough for Kitsap), and a couple
of pure Western Gulls amongst the gull flock. There was also a first
cycle Herring X Glaucous Gull. A hybrid Northern Pintail X Mallard was
the most interesting find amongst the good numbers of ducks that winter
in this part of Sinclair Inlet.

Kitsap lake had nice numbers of Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaups, and
Ruddy Ducks, but by far the biggest highlight was my long-overdue,
Kitsap County-first, REDHEAD. She was at the south end of the lake, as
are most of the waterfowl, which can be accessed from either a county
park location or a boat launch nearby.

Sunlight and wind made viewing at Long Lake difficult and we were not
able to re-locate a Canvasback (a toughie for Kitsap), which George
Gerdts had a few weeks back.

Cheers and good birding,
Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com