[Tweeters] North Sound birding

[Neil and Carleen Zimmerman]

Hello tweeters,
My wife, a couple of new friends and I went north on Sunday, January 31. We started at Rosario Head at Deception Pass State Park. Highlight for us was the sighting of 18 Marbled Murrelets.
During the winter, Deception Pass attracts many seabirds. We went to West Beach in the southern part of the park. We were not disappointed. There were 3-4 hundred Red-throated Loons. The loons were spread out to the west as far as we could see. Also there were another four Marbled Murrelets, making 22 for the day. While there were other birds around, the Red-throated Loons were the stars.
We worked our way north up to the little county park on Samish Island. Out on the bay was a large raft of Long-tailed Ducks. One of our group counted 124 birds. There were more spread out on the water in small groups. About half the birds got up and flew a little way to the west. They formed into a long line. They started diving from the end of the line. It looked like a long line of dominoes falling over. Interestingly, the only bird which didn’t dive was the one at the head of the line. They were fairly close to shore so we could see them displaying and hear them calling.
It was a wet day but the wind speed stayed low. It was a great day of birding in the Pacific Northwest.

Neil Zimmerman
Brier, Wa
n3zims at comcast dot net

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