Sharon Aagard and I spent the day visiting various spots on Camano
Island and near Stanwood. Although our original objective was to start
at Big Ditch, visibility was zilch as the heavy fog blanketed the region
until mid-morning. The only bird we saw there was a Savannah Sparrow.
Iverson Spit was equally foggy so, although we had Marsh Wrens land
practically on our legs, we headed to higher ground on the north shore
of Camano.

We stopped at Utsalady Bay and Maple Grove, finding the usual
assortment: Pacific, Red-throated and Common Loons, a large collection
of Pigeon Guillemot, plus Rhinoceros Auklet and Marbled Murrelet.
Further out at Rocky Point, we walked the road to the beach club where,
in a large flock of Pine Siskin, Sharon spotted a Common Redpoll. We had
good looks from less than 15 feet away before the nervous flock moved on.

At English Boom, nothing out of the ordinary except for a string of
Mallards that numbered in the many thousands! At Eide Road, there were
at least half a dozen Northern Harrier, plus a Short-eared Owl and
Rough-legged Hawk in the same binocular view. From the dike, we looked
over to the other side of the slough and spotted 2 Snowy Owls and a
Northern Shrike. Then, a juvenile shrike landed in the trees behind us,
not far from the hunters. A flock of Northern Pintail flew in to the
pond the hunters had outfitted with a set of decoys. The ducks didn't
stay long though and when they wheeled back toward the open water, there
number was reduced by two.

To make up for that sad event, we heard the buzzing sound of another
shrike, then watched as two Northern Shrike on the other side of the
slough chased a small bird across the fields for over a minute before
the prey managed to escape into the brambles. As we were leaving a flock
of more than 2 dozen Long-billed Dowitchers landed in the ponds and
started feeding among the decoys!

At Thomle Rd, we again saw the two Snowies we had seen from Eide Rd,
this time with much better views. Behind the dikes we could see a
wheeling flock of several thousand Dunlin. One last stop was at Boe Rd,
where we scanned the tidal marsh from the Nature Conservancy gate and
found 3 more Snowy Owls.

Scott Ramos
Seattle