Some of those recently returned are Wilson’s Snipe, Winter Wren, Dark-eyed Junco, and flocks of Pine Siskins and Yellow-rumped Warblers. The gull population is increasing, and if you really want to improve your gull ID skills, spend a couple of hours at Juanita Beach Park. The possibilities: Mew, Thayer’s, Herring, Bonaparte’s, California, and Western, along with the usually present Ring-billed and Glaucous-winged.

As always, we’ve had a few surprises: an American Bittern was spotted in the beaver pond; a female Surf Scoter, a sea duck usually found in salt water, “dropped in” for a day; a juvenile Peregrine Falcon delighted visitors on a sunny October Sunday afternoon, perching and preening in full view for a couple of hours; a pair of Common Ravens circled and called for a few minutes one afternoon; and 4 White-throated Sparrows, an Eastern species, put in a rare appearance, joining other sparrows in picking the blackberry bushes clean.

The species list for the Park stands at 155 and counting, and a copy may be downloaded from the ELWAS website. Remember to report those interesting sightings to juanitabay@elwas.org.