From Skagit to Sequim

Before the meeting I had to go to today in Everett, we had a little bit of extra time which we spent in Skagit County. My new favorite birding stop here is West 90, where we spent about 20 minutes watching northern harriers, short-eared owls, and a pair of rough-legged hawks flying around in the heavy winds. This is the same spot where I added the owl and hawk to my year list last month, so it's a great place to see these species with regularity.

After Everett we caught another ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula and made our way to Sequim. It was mostly traveling today, but it still turned out to be a pretty respectable day list. Here are the species we saw:

Mallard

Northern pintail

Gadwall

American wigeon

Green-winged teal

Northern shoveler

Surf scoter

Common goldeneye

Barrow's goldeneye

Bufflehead

Red-breasted merganser

Hooded merganser

Canada goose

Trumpeter swan

Red-necked grebe

Horned grebe

Rhinoceros auklet

Pigeon guillemot

Common loon

Double-crested cormorant

Pelagic cormorant

Glaucous-winged gull

Mew gull

Red-tailed hawk

Rough-legged hawk

Northern harrier

Bald eagle

Short-eared owl

Ring-necked pheasant

Great blue heron

Rock pigeon

Eurasian collared-dove

American robin

American crow

Common raven

Pacific wren

European starling

Brewer's blackbird

Dark-eyed junco

39 species....not bad! That could be tough to beat tomorrow, but that's my goal!