Following up on Jeff Gibson's lovely observation of silently flying snow geese, may I note that there is some fine night birding around the Snohomish River? With the full-ish moon and clear skies, the barn owls' facial disks can be seen as they sit contemplating me on fenceposts or barreling by. The three hulking dark juvenile bald eagles that showed up last weekend sit silently in the cottonwood trees across the river. A small group of trumpeter swans fly close enough that I can hear their wingbeats and soft honking; their white bodies gleam in the moonlight. The chorus frogs are singing up a symphonic storm in the fields. Another owl flies by - not a barn owl, but I can't identify it. I hear my one lonely pheasant call from the field. With the fields flooded and hunting season over, there are lots of ducks around, too- the "Joker" sounding mallards most noticably, but others as well. And there are Jeff's snow geese, which I believe boomerang between my humble abode and his.

Nice place for an evening walk!

Monica Van der Vieren
Snohomish, WA 98290