Dear Tweeters,
The Samish Flats Prairie Falcon that eluded me yesterday, over a three-and-a-half-hour span, took me all of three minutes to find today, 5 February 2017. It was on Chuckanut Drive. I was there early enough so that I could stop and take a few bad photos. That road is monstrously busy later in the day, so it might be smart to get an early start if one were to try for it. I had been trying on Sunset Road yesterday; the bird was on Chuckanut Drive about six tenths of a mile north of Field Road, and south of Sunset Road, when I saw it. Maybe it is splitting its time between Sunset and Chuckanut?
Later, I was happy to see Matt Bartels when I tried to relocate the Cockreham Island Harris's Sparrow. He and I got to see it, but it took about twenty minutes. The other Zonos were making themselves much more visible this time.
In Hamilton, I was astounded to find a SWAMP SPARROW at the wetland east of town. Also there was a scrawny-looking AMERICAN BITTERN, which I think was my first winter one upriver. There was a dead Trumpeter Swan right there by the roadside, too. The Swamp Sparrow is the second I have found in this stretch of the valley, the other having been a couple of miles to the west, just a couple of months ago.
At Rasar State Park, there were not very many birds, but my attempts to get the passerines stirred up attracted not only a Hutton's Vireo, but a Northern Pygmy Owl as well.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch