Dear Tweeters,

Today there was a Rusty Blackbird in a big flock of Brewer's Blackbirds, just east of Sedro-Woolley (Skagit County).

The location was a muddy pasture on Hoehn (rhymes with goin') Road, a hundred meters or so south of Minkler Road. The pasture had nearly a thousand starlings feeding to the east of Hoehn Road, among the cows, while about two hundred Brewer's were feeding to the west of Hoehn.

On page 109 of the DeLorme Atlas, lower right corner, this location can be found, just north of the first capital N in the word "Burlington"--where it shows the old Burlington Northern rail line (now a rails-to-trails). This is about four or five miles east of Sedro-Woolley via Minkler Road (called "B C Minkler Road" in the Gazetteer).

At first I thought I saw a lone female Red-winged Blackbird in the Brewer's flock, but the bold eyebrow, the reddish cap, the reddish-brown edging to tertials, and the light iris soon gave me pause.

There is a halfway-decent shoulder to Hoehn Road here, so a vehicle can be pulled over. The birds were rather cooperative for blackbirds, sometimes moving closer to the car, then flying a short ways off when other vehicles drove by, and then returning to eat whatever it was they were eating in the mud not far from the road.

On a personal note, this was a satisfying observation indeed. The last time I'd seen a Rusty Blackbird was the day I'd first seen one, in April of 1977. Every time one of these birds has been reported in Skagit County, I have made repeated trips, only to find nothing but the usual skittish flock of blackbirds that disappears at the sight of a pair of binoculars. One particular Rusty showed up near the Farmhouse Inn for several weeks, and I made trip after trip, one time missing the bird by fifteen minutes...

I cannot think of another species, for a second look at which I have waited 26 years. All part of the fun of birding!




Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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