When returning home from Bellingham last week I drove through the Samish Flats and saw a Short-eared owl sitting on a post immediately beside the road. It was an overcast day, late in the afternoon and I didn’t have my camera with me. Since that sighting I had been thinking of getting back to the area in the hopes of getting a similar photo opportunity. So on the morning of December 1, 2021, I headed over towards Bow. As is so often the case I didn’t find any of the birds I had hoped to see but did find other birds to photograph.

The first notable birds I encountered were a group of at least 30 American coots. I don’t see many coots in the greater area and I’ve never known the birds to be particularly gregarious, especially in this area, so to see so many crowded together in a flooded farm field seems unusual.

This Red-winged blackbird was part of a very large flock of males (which usually separate from the females in the non-breeding season) which were predating a flooded corn field.

During my travels around the area I saw at least four Rough-legged hawks. As is almost always the case, all were perched on power lines depriving me of the opportunity to get a more natural photo. (I just noticed before posting this that the bird is apparently banded on its right leg.)

Perched very close to one of the hawks was this female American kestrel.

Moving on to a more restricted environment, I found this Lincoln’s sparrow peeking out from a tangle of bushes. Unfortunately I was unable to coax it out for a better photograph.

And finally, I managed to find a pair of Ruby-crowned kinglets in another set of bushes. These birds can be very challenging to photograph as they are in almost constant motion, but I managed several good photos. I never could see any evidence of a ruby crown on either bird, so both may have been females. However, I have long given up trying to assign sex to kinglets without ruby crowns… the males are too adept at keeping their crowns hidden.