Early morning today (4-7-14) was beautiful on the Edmonds waterfront. Viewing conditions were close to perfect. As I walked out onto the public pier about 7:45, a gray whale surfaced in the near-shore waters. There were over a hundred Brants spread out in the offshore waters along with a small raft of about 12 Western Grebes. Birds appearing in alternate plumage included Pelagic Cormorants, Horned Grebes, Red-necked Grebes, Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, and Bonaparte's Gulls. I looked hard for a Caspian Tern, as I did yesterday afternoon on the ferry to Kingston. Our first-of-2013 Caspian Tern was April 4th but we haven't spotted one yet this spring.

Virginia Rails are now calling in the Edmonds marsh. I arrived early this morning and watched one foraging at the base of the cattails in the northwest corner. Two Eurasian Collared-Doves (code 3) were on Sunset Avenue on April 5th. Townsend's Warblers left my yard about March 27-28 and I have not seen any in public areas. We received a late report of several Tree Swallows (code 3) passing through on March 18th. Since then we have seen Violet-green Swallows over the marsh on several mornings but they, too, seemed to pass through. There have been a couple of Savannah Sparrow sightings. There have been no other migrating shorebirds in the marsh since the Dunlin we saw on March 23rd and continuing Wilson's Snipe sightings.

We are at 112 species for the year.

Carol Riddell
Edmonds, Wa