It wasn’t going to be a Five Falcon Day, but when the one falcon is a gyrfalcon, it’s still a pretty good morning.
I was cruising the Samish flats, poking north along Padilla Bay, enjoying the wide open spaces and the sunshine on my way to Samish Island for a few good views.
The flats provide fertile soil for farmers who require wide-open spaces, the same spaces that are attractive to raptors.
Gyrfalcons, the largest of the true falcons, are rare visitors to the open Western Washington lowlands, although the flats are a great place to find raptors from fall to spring.
Here birders have a chance for a Five Falcon Day: gyrfalcon, prairie falcon, peregrine falcon, merlin and kestrel.
The best chance of seeing a variety of raptors is on the West 90, an observation site with parking in the Samish Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area. It’s where the east-west section of Samish Island Road turns north at a 90-degree angle towards Samish Island.
“It’s the best place to see the gyrfalcon,” said Ted Paprocki of Seattle, who was getting a good view of one sitting on the cross arm of a telephone pole.
Paprocki was trying out his birthday gift, a Swarovski spotting scope.
“There’s so much food here for them to eat in the winter,” he said.
The powerful flyers simply fly faster than their prey can move,whether dinner is a bird, a vole or a rabbit.
It has the generic falcon profile, the long tail and long wings, but it basically requires binoculars, a bird book and a knowledgeable birder to separate it from other species
During a Skagit Audubon field trip last month, a gyrfalcon spent a couple of hours eating an American widgeon while perched on a telephone pole near the West 90 observation area.
They’ll be on their way to the Arctic this month. Many stay there year-round.
Banding records show that most of the birds banded in Washington have been female, and other records show that most of the gyrfalcons in Washington tend to be immature.
Herons: The Black River heron colony is in its 19th year in Renton. Herons are building nests and a few are incubating eggs.
This year eagles built a nest next to the heron colony, which could be good news (defend territory against other eagles) and bad news (prey on heron eggs and chicks).
Actually, the really bad news is that the body of the female eagle was found in her nest. She probably died early this month. There’s some concern that she may have been shot, because it’s so unusual for an eagle to die in a nest.
In the past, spent bullet cases have been found along the trail to the colony. The state Fish and Wildlife Department has decided not to retrieve the dead eagle because too many of the herons are still incubating and very skittish. The dead eagle’s mate has taken a new mate, the department reports.
Hungry: Black bears are beginning to emerge from their dens, state Department of Fish and Wildlife managers say.
The bears are hungry and irritable, so rural residents should keep pet and livestock food indoors. If you’re taking an early camping trip, keep your food stored far from your tent, slung over a high tree limb several feet out from the trunk.
Hummers: Rufous hummingbirds are found as far north as the San Juan Islands, hunting out early blooming plants such as red-flowering currant, Indian plum and salmonberry – and your hummingbird feeder.
What are you waiting for? The earlier you attract their attention, the more likely it is that they’ll hang around your feeder.
The sugar-water mix that mimics their favorite nectar is four parts water and one part sugar. Boil it, let it cool and fill your feeders.
There also have been reports of Anna’s hummingbirds in some Western Washington locales.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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