Subject: [Tweeters] Edmonds Today
Date: Oct 16 17:29:12 2012
From: Carol Riddell - cariddellwa at gmail.com


Hi Tweets,

It has been mostly dry in Edmonds today. Blue sky has alternated with
clouds. It has been breezy with chop on the water. Briefly there was a
pale rainbow off the south end of Whidbey Island. There were lots of
Surf Scoters. From Sunset Avenue I found three Black Scoter drakes
among one flock of Surf Scoters. Both Double-crested and Pelagic
Cormorants were around. The Double-cresteds were mostly resting on the
dive park barrels. At one point an adult Bald Eagle flew over the
area. There were two Pacific Loons west of the dive park. In the near
shore zone there were Horned Grebes. Red-necked Grebes were a little
further off shore and Western Grebes were in the far distance. It was
a four alcid afternoon. There were 30 or more Rhinoceros Auklets, at
least one Common Murre, several Pigeon Guillemots, and two murrelets
that flew in low and fast near a jumble of feeding gulls. They
immediately dove and I never saw them come up. That made me think of
Ancient Murrelets but I only had an impression of black and white, not
of the gray, black, and white of Ancient Murrelets. Gulls included
Glaucous-winged, Mew, and Heermann's.

On the south side of Edmonds Marsh there were 79 Greater Canada Geese,
American Wigeons, Northern Shovelers, Gadwalls, Green-winged Teals,
and one of the two American Coots that have been around since summer.
The Willow Creek Hatchery had more activity than I have seen in a
while. There were Robins, Steller's Jays, Northern Flicker, both Black-
capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets, one
Spotted Towhee, two Fox Sparrows, and multiple Oregon Juncos. A male
Townsend's Warbler was also in the area. On the north side of Edmonds
Marsh, there were 11 Great Blue Herons, Bushtits, Song Sparrows, and
three male Anna's Hummingbirds on the west side of the boardwalk. They
were buzzing each other and oblivious to the class of mariners
practicing life boat drills on the other side of the fence. A Parks
employee was pressure washing the red path so it will not be slippery
when the weather turns in earnest. I felt gratitude for that small
favor.

Good birding,

Carol Riddell
Edmonds