We had a short but satisfactory look at a Northern Goshawk this afternoon, after it flew across Polson Road to perch briefly, then continued flying off to the north. It stayed in the tree long enough to clearly see its silver belly, long striped tail, and general large accipiter shape (size of a redtail), although I was driving, and I could not get a clear look at its head to confirm the supercilium. This was about 2:30 PM after the 90-degree right turn, about half a mile beyond Dry Slough Rd. We stuck around for a while, but it did not. When it flew off it was weaving through the trees and appeared to be hunting.

Earlier today we spent about 3 hours driving the roads in the area and encountered quite a few special birders doing the same thing, but no special birds (at least not the special ones we were hoping for - several Cooper's Hawks and many, many Red-tailed Hawks, and many wires bearing American Kestrels). We then walked for a couple of hours in the Wylie Slough area and saw a Northern Shrike, many Golden-crowned Sparrows, several feeding Purple Finches, numerous Northern Harriers as well as the ubiquitous Bald Eagles.

A flock of several hundred Snow Geese landed somewhere north of the slough. Most of the swans we saw were Trumpeters.

Gary Kelsberg, with Sarah Safranek and Peter Jones
Seattle

kelsberg at yew dot warshington dot edu
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