I had a meeting in Mt. Vernon this afternoon and
used that as an excuse to bird Stanwood and Skagit
area despite the hunters. Beautiful morning and
despite many "men in orange", it was decent
birding. Even had some good conversations with
hunters about possible futures for Eide Road.

One highlight was the thousands of Snow Geese in
the air at Eide Road and then on the ground
(10,000 easily) at Hayton Reserve in Skagit. It
was also nice to finally have many Mallards with
their full green heads. Other ducks were
primarily Pintail, Shovelers, Green Winged Teal,
and Gadwall. Shorebirds were a few scattered
Killdeer, 11 LB Dowitchers at Skagit Game Range
and LOTS of birds at the Eide Road ponds. These
included 25+ Dunlin, 20+ Lesser Yellowlegs and I
estimate more than 500 Dowitchers, presumably
LB's. Raptors were 3 Kestrels, 6 Harriers, 3 Bald
Eagles and a Merlin. The other notable birds were
the very large number of sparrows in every
hedgerow. I have never seen so many sparrows at
Eide Road. Easily 100+ including mostly Savannahs
but also numerous White Crowned and the usual Song
Sparrows. I "wandered onto the road" around the
Stanwood STP and enjoyed the numerous ducks, 150
Cackling Geese (and a few Canadas), 10 plus Pied
Bill Grebes and 2 Horned Grebes. There also were
many gulls, primarily Glaucous Winged type with a
few Mews and Ringed Bills. There were also many
sparrows along the road and the slough near the
corner. These included Song, White Crowned,
Savannah and a single White Throated (white
stripe). Sparrows at the various Skagit areas
were also numerous including in addition to the
ones elsewhere a single Lincolns Sparrow and
possibly a Tan Striped White Throated. I had a
very brief fleeting view and believe the ID
correct but it was deep in a tree and I could not
get a sufficiently good second view to be sure.

All in all around 55 species of birds and two very
playful otters.


--
Blair Bernson
Edmonds