Drawn northward by a possibility of seeing a couple of shorebirds I've not seen before (a Ruff and a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, seen earlier in the week at Eide Rd.), and hoping for a sighting of a Short-eared Owl, I did an afternoon/evening trip to Stanwood yesterday. As the puddles (ponds) were almost dried up, I saw no shorebirds, but did hear a couple of them (yellowlegs, I believe). Took the 236th St. exit (#210) and angled over to Boe Rd., seeing nothing but starlings enroute. At the end of Boe Rd. (Nature Conservancy spot), I found that the dike-removal and other de- and construction, seems to be at a standstill and nowhere near finished - no raptors or much of anything but Song Sparrows along that road.

Next went to Thomle Rd. where I'd spent a lot of time viewing Snowy Owls and other raptors last winter, and only came up with a Red-tailed Hawk, which in usual form, skipped from phone pole to phone pole. Not sure if it was a juvenile or adult, but it was fairly light. No white lumps out on the dike...

Finally, at about 6:30, I went over to Eide Rd. and encountered a couple of redtails, a male and a female Northern Harrier, and a surprise adult Peregrine Falcon which zipped through toward the slough and river to the south of the road ! At one point, while looking out over the field to the north and west, I thought I saw a Short-eared Owl in floppy flight way out to the west, where I saw them a lot last year. But further looks showed me that I was seeing a male Northern Harrier. Oh, well, that was pretty nice. Had seen a female flying and perching in that field/wetland area south of the bridge to Camano Is. earlier. I did hear the scuttling of some sort of rodent just out from the parking area, but no raptor came in to retrieve it. Just before I left, at around 7:45, I heard a strange croaking/gurgling/rumbling sound, much larger than the frog sounds I'd heard earlier. It was my stomach ! But that reminder of dinnertime, was followed by another squawking/croaking/gronking sound and I saw the Great Blue Heron that was making it as it lumbered (a flying form of this) across the marsh, and landing, perhaps to roost for the night.

I spent a lot of time taking photos of the beautiful sky and trying to get a decent shot or 2 of a far-off redtail in a small tree. But I was out of practice in shooting into the sun and in capturing any images at all while looking through my scope, so my initial hawk shots are of my old 'signature' style, blurry, thermally distorted and not quite up to my usual gallery quality :-)

However, as I was driving back up to the highway, I did manage to catch a couple of attractive shots of a redtail (silhouette) with the last colors of the sunset providing a nice background. You can view my photos in the following Flickr set: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjC8oP4D

A very satisfactory visit...

Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net
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