I led the area 2 team in this mostly birding-by-ear area of fields,
thickets, and forests. Area 2 is bordered on the east by I-5, on the
south by 172nd, alternately known as Lakewood Road and Highway 531, on
the north by Pioneer Highway, and on the west by Frank Waters Road. I
only had time to do two half-day scouting trips. Other than birding
along Pioneer Highway, this area was new for me. Three of us were able
to give it pretty decent coverage during the 8 hours of daylight. We
had 50 species. Highlights included a small fly-over flock of Snow
Geese, four Trumpeter Swans, two Virginia Rails, two Wilson's Snipe, 5
adult Bald Eagles, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, a Peregrine Falcon, both
chickadees, both kinglets, a number of nuthatches, 3 Hutton's Vireos,
two Brown Creepers, Varied and Hermit's Thrushes, Robins, Bewick's-
Pacific-Marsh Wrens, a lone Townsend's Warbler. The large "blackbird"
flock at Pioneer Highway and 7th was overwhelmingly Starlings. We
figured about 10-15% were Brewer's Blackbirds. Interestingly, we had
no Red-winged Blackbirds in the flock. There were five Brown-headed
Cowbirds, but no immature Yellow-headed Blackbird yesterday afternoon.
We hoped for a Rusty Blackbird but could not find that either. After
dark I picked up a Barn Owl at an isolated barn that I had staked out
last weekend.

My thanks to Tim Brennan and Cindy Easterson, my team colleagues, who
made this a successful area count.

Carol Riddell
Edmonds, WA