Hi Tweeters,

Today I had a very fun day birding with Bill Driskell and Inge Watson in
the Skagit area. Here's an abbreviated list of highlights in no particular
order:

Snow Bunting: 3 flew in and landed right in front of us at Hayton on Fir
Island. I heard them rattling a bit, they soon flew over our heads and
landed up on the dike, where we pursued and the other two got photos. Lifer
for Inge and I.

~9000 Dunlin at Hayton, also seen elsewhere on the flats

4 Northern Shrike - Hayton, T Loop road, East 90, West 90

Adult Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk on T Loop road, our firsts.

5 Rough-legged Hawk at East 90, very close views of two hovering.

A fairly distant Jaeger harassed two Bonaparte's Gulls and stole both of
their fish off of the Samish Island overlook, we believe it was an adult
Parasitic, I'm going to scrutinize field marks and make sure it wasn't a
Long-tailed.

About 500 Bonaparte's Gulls off Samish Overlook, easily the most I've seen
at a time.

Short-eared Owl - Great looks at Eide Road.

I was watching a snipe from a distance of about twenty feet that had just
landed in a field when the face of a Merlin appeared in my binocular view
right behind the snipe! They both rocketed over our heads.

Thousands of Snow Geese have returned, there were at least 10,000 at Eide,
and a couple thousand on Fir Island.

Louis Kreemer
Seattle
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