Subject: [Tweeters] Eide Rd. evening treats - 5/15/12
Date: May 16 16:40:51 2012
From: Barbara Deihl - barbdeihl at comcast.net


Wilson's Phalaropes and Yellow-headed Blackbirds were still present and active at the northerly puddles/ponds at Eide Rd. in Stanwood. from 8:15-9:15 p.m. last night. Like Blair Bernson, I just had to follow the urge to go seek them, as I, too really like them, with their slender bills, striking plumage, and pleasant calls. The spinning part is wonderful, too, but I missed that action - the birds were slowing down and just walking about and poking into the mud occasionally, which would have been ideal for photography had there been more light. But I managed some "signature" shots anyway ( http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzpMHru ). The YHBB's were hanging out in cattail clumps, and vocal and active for less time than the phalaropes. Luckily I had a couple of fleece layers to warm me as I stood in the cool air looking through my scope when I got there. A bit later, the breeze let up, the puddle water was still and it substantially warmed up! Frogs started up a bit of a chorus around 9 p.m.

At 9:15 I drove to the end of Eide to see if another owl would show up and if I could identitfy it. Sure enough, at about 9:30 a large-headed, short-tailed owl glided by, and, even before it started about 5-min.-worth of shrieks as it flew over the marsh and off to the other side of the dike and back again, I could see from it's shape and lack of Short-eared Owl mothlike flapping, that this was a Barn Owl. Mystery solved!

From that parking area at the end of the road, I also could see and hear shorebird and duck activity in some ponds to the west, but it was too dark to make out much. The ducks swam like Northern Shovelers and the shorebirds sounded like...yellowlegs?, dowitchers?, peeps of some sort?

Mammals seen along Eide - a small cottontail rabbit (at same time and in same place as I saw one last Thur.) and one black-tailed, long-eared deer (Mule deer?). The deer surprised me by walking by me about 10 feet away. I was glad the footsteps I heard were its and not something less benign.

As for numbers, I'd say I saw about 6 Wilson's Phalaropes and maybe 10 Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Almost misidentified the blackbirds, as, in that light the yellow was no where near as blazing yellow as ones I've seen before in Eastern WA. But upon closer inspection, I confirmed to myself that these indeed were they.

I skipped the Whimbrels last night, having gotten a good look at the hundreds on Camano last Thur. evening.

Sometime I'll have to go up to that area a bit earlier and catch some of these birds in better light. But I am rather fond of evenings, the quiet, the solitude and the sunsets... :-)


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net