Joseph and I spent Super Bowl afternoon out on the Samish and Skagit Flats.
On Dodge Valley Road on Fir Island, we found a flock of several thousand
SNOW GEESE that included two BLUE-MORPH birds. One of blue-morph birds was
a juvenile, which I had never seen before. Another goose in this flock was
neck-banded with a red band numbered 6 X1. We reported this bird to the
Banding Lab. It was banded either on Wrangel Island or La Perouse,
Manitoba; we will find out more later.



We stopped at the Hayton Preserve just before dusk, where we saw a flock of
many hundreds of shorebirds flying around on the other side of the dike.
They were quite distant, but I figure they must have been Dunlin. Maybe
this is where the missing flock has been hanging out this winter.



Rachel Lawson

Seattle

rwlawson at q.com