By mid-morning on Feb 12 the sun was shining and I decided it was time for yet another birding excursion.  I first made a trip through my neighborhood and found this magnificent male Spotted towhee.

The sun lasted just about long enough for me to get around a rather uncharacteristically unproductive March’s Point, so finding little to photograph there I continued to Channel Drive where I managed to observe and photograph a female Belted kingfisher catching, and hurrying through (!), lunch.

 I had an errand to run in Burlington so I wandered through the farm fields south of Memorial Highway.  I encountering the most cooperative American kestrel I had ever found in Skagit County.  The bird allowed me to stop almost directly below it for photographs, then stayed in place while I had to move for a large farm truck passing by, and then allowed me to return for more photographs!  I never could see the plumage details to allow me to make a sex determination, but I sort of suspect from its behavior that it might be a female.

I found this juvenile Bald eagle sitting in a farm field not far from the road, looking around as if it had nothing to do.

On my way back I swung around March’s Point again and photographed this male Northern pintail.