Subject: [Tweeters] Whatcom County Snow Buntings and More
Date: Feb 15 21:26:51 2014
From: Rick Taylor - taylorrl at outlook.com


Tweeters,



Today Tina and tried to avoid the rain by birding north. We stayed dry
until early afternoon. Our best birds were:

. Redhead (3) at Wiser lake

. Mountain Bluebird (1) female at Semiahmoo spit just north of the
covered picnic tables

. White-Throated Sparrow (1) at the Lummi Flats Kiwna Road

. Snow Goose (1) in the fields across from the entrance road to Lake
Terrell

. Snow Bunting (25) on the dike road at the end of Kiwna Road on the
Lummi Flats

. Canvasback at Wiser Lake and Terrell Lake



The fields at the intersection of Mountain View Rd and Lake Terrell Rd
across from the entrance from Lake Terrell held an amazing number of geese
and Wigeon. It's a really good spot to study Canada & Cackling Goose
subspecies.



In our last viewing of the Snow Bunting flock, we got a brief and intriguing
glimpse of a very white bird in with the SNBU as they flew off into the
sideways rain. One of the birds was much whiter than the others only and
showed black at the tips of the wings. There is one record of McKay's
Bunting from this area in 1993. We may head out again tomorrow and try to
look over the flock in better viewing conditions. If you go out there, be
advised that it is a narrow one-lane road on the dike top with only a couple
of turn-around spots. There are two tide gates that must be crossed which
require a high clearance vehicle to avoid leaving bumpers and exhaust
systems behind. I don't know if the tide gates are still dry and passible
at high tide. The SNBU flock was very skittish and moved around from just
past the first tide gate to just before the locked gate.



Good birding!



Rick





Rick Taylor

Everett, WA