Hi Tweeters,

High tide at Leque Island this morning was about 5 am. There
was no way we were going to be there then, even if it had been light, so we
showed up a few minutes after 8 am. There was still considerable ground fog
and I doubted we would see much. Nonetheless, we spent an enjoyable 2 hours
there. First, there was skein after skein of geese. I thought they were
all Cacklers, but photos revealed that there were quite a few Greater
White-fronted Geese as well. Mostly heading south, but some skeins were
heading north. Not sure why. Aside from all the geese, there were many,
many American Pipits. From the parking lot out to the end of the dike,
pipits were flying around landing on the rocks supporting the dike and the
mudflats near the dike. Finally, there have been one or more Great Egrets
at Leque Island for weeks. One flew in while we were there. It was chased
away by a local Great Blue Heron.

We went from there to Wiley Slough. We knew no one had seen the
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper yesterday, so we weren't expecting to see it. And we
didn't. But there were Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and a flock of about
35 dowitchers. Mostly Long-billed. The big migratory bird here was the
American Robin, aptly named Turdus migratorius.. There were hundreds all
over the reserve, jumping in here there and everywhere. Oddly we only saw
one skein of geese here, to the west and unidentifiable. We did find some
of the Black Phoebes that have nested at the reserve. They were near the
covered pavilion near one of the parking lots.

This seemed like a perfect way to spend part of the last day of
September. Charlotte Byers, Edmonds



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20200930/ace25004/attachment.html>