JoLynn Edwards and I birded the Skagit Flats today. At the Skagit Game Range
Headquarters Unit we encountered the male ORANGE BISHOP found there by
Michael Hobbs last Monday. It was sitting up in the blackberries at the
entrance to the boat launch parking lot -- quite a startling sight against
the gray sky and the muted autumn vegetation. There is a large safe zone
(no hunting) on all sides of this parking lot, with plenty of sparrows, but
we found nothing of particular note among them.

Large flock (2000 or more) of SNOW GEESE at the Hayton (Snow Goose) Reserve
on Fir Island Road.

Not much in the way of raptors on either the Skagit or the Samish -- a
sprinkling of red-tails, a couple of eagles, and a sharpie near a house with
feeders over toward La Conner. No swans anywhere.

On March Point Road (Padilla Bay side), just across the railroad tracks from
the junction with South March Point Road, we found a SWAMP SPARROW. It was
foraging on small logs at the edge of the embayment 50 feet east of the
road, frequently ducking back into the brambles where it eventually
disappeared. There is a pocket cattail marsh full of Song Sparrows between
these brambles and the railroad embankment.

Hal Opperman
Medina, Washington
hal at catharus.net