Hello Tweets,

Saturday on a Seattle Audubon field trip co-led by Suzy Hunter and Andy McCormick 12 birders saw 74 species of birds on a beautiful, sunny day along Whidbey Island.

Highlights: A group of four Marbled Murrelets off Rosario Point; the sheer abundance of some seabirds at West Beach including over 50 Red-throated Loons, 6 Common Loons, 50 Black Oystercatchers, 30 Pigeon Guillimots, a group of 8 Harlequin Ducks, and a Red-necked Grebe; a flock of 4 Long-tailed Ducks in deep water and a flyby of a pair of White-winged Scoters off Swantown; shorebirds including Black-bellied Plover, Dunlin, and Least Sandpipers at Bos Lake; very large flocks of American Wigeon and Northern Pintail, some Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, four Herring Gulls, and a pair of Northern Harriers including a male that treated the group to a close flyby in the fading sunlight over Crockett Lake.

We want to send a word of thanks to some members of Skagit Audubon for their tip during our scouting trip a week ago Saturday in stormy weather. They sent us to West Beach where Suzy and I saw Pacific Loons. Unfortunately we did not see them in the calmer weather this Saturday.

Good birding to all,
Andy McCormick
Bellevue, WA