[Tweeters] Birding Report for Skagit

[via Tweeters]

  Hello to all in Tweetdom,

  First - and again - Wylie Slough is open again and it appears it  
will stay open for the
forseeable future.  I did go there once late last week and I have  
mixed emotions.  What
they did to the roads, fences, dikes, etc. is simply great.  What I do  
not understand is
why they also took down about 75% of the large trees that were along  
the edges of the
dikes - and most of the brush ... both of which were important habitat  
for the birds.
The number of birds and the number of bird species was dissappointing  
- but I can't
completely discount someone arguing "wrong day/wrong time of  
year/wrong state of
the tide/etc.".  It just seemed "lonely" - not in terms of people but  
in terms of how
many birds there weren't.  *big disappointed frown"

  Second - the arrival of Snows and Swans and ducks continues.  Just  
one example - just now I
saw thousands of birds flying up high and moving "generally South" ...  
whether or not they 
would have decided to do a stop over here in Skagit or further South  
is anyone's guess.  We are
noticing larger and larger numbers of snows and swans here.  However,  
with respect to the
ducks I still have yet to see "hundreds of ducks in a single field"  
which isn't all that unexpected
considering that we don't have the ponds/small lakes/flooding of the  
fields that the non-stop
rains will create.

  Third - I was at Nisqually NWR yesterday morning - only my second  
time there.  It was "about
the same as the first time which was in the same weekend of November.   
There was a fairly
large group going out as I was coming back to the parking lot and they  
seemed to be some
kind of guided birding outing - lots of people carrying spotting  
scopes and at least 20 birders.
Billy Frank parking lots were FULL when I was leaving about noon.   
There were 2 Bald Eagles
in the large trees near the Twin Barns but too high up and too many  
branches in front of them
to get a picture.

  So far I have not seen any SEOWs at the East 90.  On two different  
occasions I've seen
some birds that were behaving 'suspiciously like SEOWs' but on -both-  
of those occasions
any actual/firm ID came back as Harriers.

  From my perspective the numbers of shorebirds (wading and etc.) are  
down from a
month ago - both in terms of quantities and numbers of species.   But  
there is still some
good opportunities at places like Channel Drive ... if you get some  
good light (or don't
care because you don't have a camera with you).

  Today has been a particularly good day to spot birds from here at  
our house - because
there have been low clouds in the distance ('Sedro Wooley') but full  
sun here around
Burlington Hill ... so the birds "pop out from the background" very  
well.  But all - sigh - 
were at considerable distance so no pictures this time.
  We are also seeing Bald Eagles on the top of what we call "The Eagle  
Tree" that is
right in front of us at the bottom of the hill.  This was common back  
in 2021 and before
but for the last couple of years they've only been on that tree occasionally.

                                                        - Go Birding.   
Encourage others to go birding!   - Jim
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