Subject: [Tweeters] Blue-winged Teal, Whimbrel, Pigeon Guillemots,
Date: May 25 21:29:27 2015
From: Andrew McCormick - andy_mcc at hotmail.com


Hello Tweets,

This weekend I was birding for the Eastside Audubon and Seattle Audubon Birdathons this weekend and found some interesting birds.

On Saturday (Sorry for the late post.) our team the Karismatic Kestrels on a Big Day for Eastside Audubon found two pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL at Birder's Corner (the intersection of Dodson Rd and Frenchman Hill Road in Grant County). I scoped these dark shapes on the pond at 8:50 p.m. and saw the definitive face crescent for my state bird Blue-winged Teal.

On Monday on a Seattle Audubon field trip to Camano Island fourteen of us found about a dozen WHIMBRELS in the mudflat grasses at the end of the dike walk at Iverson Spit.

At the Cavellero County Park on Camano Island we saw two PIGEON GUILLIMOTS flying in synchronized flight. I had never seen them do this before and thought it was courtship behavior. Birds of North America online has the following entry:
Courtship displays . ... Spectacular ?water games? off colony, involving zigzag chasing at and just beneath water surface (Drent 1965a), possibly function as a prelude to copulation (Thoresen and Booth 1958), or general courtship (PJE).

In addition, we had a flock of 15 RED CROSSBILLS perched on short dead trees at the small marsh in the Elgar Bay Preserve on Camano Island. I almost missed the identification because I was so surprised to see them there. I see them flying over or in the tops of 200 foot trees. The red and yellow finches didn't register with me until they started calling and I heard the familiar jip-jip-jip, that is heard when they fly over. A good reminder that birds are not always where they are supposed to be.

Thanks to all who donated time and money to the Birdathons for their respective Audubon chapters this May.

Good birding,
Andy McCormick
Bellevue, WA