The dreamy weather filled in for the paucity of birds in some favorite spots near Stanwood, Fir Island and the Samish Flats on Sunday afternoon/evening. Here's a quick rundown:

Boe Rd.: 100 Snow Geese in field on south side of road, across from where hunters will soon be lining up this next weekend and beyond

Thomle Rd.: Northern Harrier (f) and 2 Red-tailed Hawks

Eide Rd.: we didn't go there this trip

"Big Ditch" (betw. Stanwood and Conway): 6 White-fronted Geese, Merlin chasing and being chased by a minor Starling murmuration, 20 Yellow-rumped Warblers (Audubon's variety), N. Harriers All female) and Red-tailed Hawks (a few of each), juvenile Peregrine Falcon (perched on a snag along Pioneer Highway, just south of turn-off to Big Ditch

Wylie road, near boat launch parking lot: Northern Harrier (f) and Red-tailed Hawk

Rawlins Rd. dike: both a male and female Northern Harrier, Great Blue Herons (2-3) Several long skeins of Snow Geese were flying off toward the bay

West 90: 2-3 female N. Harriers, 1 male N. Harrier, Western Meadowlarks (a few), 2-3 Red-tailed Hawks and, at about 6:30 p.m., 4 of us saw, at last, one SHORT-EARED OWL flying med.-high and mutually hassling 2 Northern Harriers, way down to the south - one of the people looking, Howard, reported having seen one at W-90 in August. Another birder, Becky, was hoping to see a Rough-legged Hawk that had been seen there very recently, but no luck on that

Howard related an experience down in San Diego at a wetland (either in Oct. or Nov. of this or last year), watching several Merlins, for several days in a row, hunting dragonflies. He said sometimes they would capture and hold onto a couple at a time. Each day he was there, he'd find the Merlins spread out on a bunch of posts, their hunting vantage points, and then he'd watch them zip after the dragonflies. Suddenly, one day neither bird nor insect was there anymore, as it had gotten too cold. Apparently, the dragonflies were migrating south, which the others of us were surprised to hear - so, some live more than a year !

A Short-eared Owl - how exciting that was! And how fun to see the Merlin in action. Missed the American Kestrel that some friends saw the same afternoon, along Rawlins Rd. Howard said he'd seen a Merlin and a Peregrine on Farm-to-Mkt. Rd earlier in the day, near the concrete plant, just off of SR 20

A beautiful sky ended our pleasant sojourn.


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net