Yesterday morning, at Polson Rd & Dry Slough Rd on Fir Island, there was a flock of over 20 WESTERN MEADOWLARKS, feeding in a plowed field and singing like it was spring. A lone AMERICAN PIPIT was in the field as well. An AMERICAN KESTREL observed from nearby.

Before high tide there was a large number of shorebirds at Hayton Preserve on Fir Island in Skagit County. The birds were distant and back lit as usual in the AM, but as the sun moved across the sky, there were moments when distant ID of birds was possible. Shorebirds were:

Killdeer
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Long-billed Dowitcher
Pectoral Sandpiper - 3
Dunlin
Red Knot - 3 in basic or juv plumage
Peeps

Three immature PEREGRINE FALCONS hunted the shorebirds. One peregrine was much smaller than the other two and could easily be mistaken for a Merlin. Over 100 SNOW GEESE were also at Hayton.

On Wylie Road a MERLIN chased blackbirds.

Passerine activity was nearly absent at the Game Range (Wylie Slough). I could hear BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES & PURPLE FINCHES. A NORTHERN SHRIKE made the brief stop worthwhile.

In Snohomish County, south of Stanwood, the dark morph RED-TAILED HAWK was perched at the intersection with Boe Rd. This bird has been in that area for a few years. At the other end of Boe Road was my first HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK of the season. This bird was a dark morph adult. As is typical with harlan's, close approach was not permitted. Also at the end of Boe Road was another NORTHERN SHRIKE.

On 7th off of Pioneer, just west of Interstate 5, there was an AMERICAN KESTREL. I was hoping to see the light morph Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk that spent last winter there. No luck..... yet.

--
Marv Breece
Tukwila, WA
marvbreece at q.com

"what are the costs to a society of an entire population conditioned to spend so much of their waking lives not in concentration and focus but rather in fragmentary awareness and subject to constant interruption?" - The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu

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