Dear Tweeters,

Today was a good day to look at gulls in Skagit County. I was lucky enough to find eight species of them: Western, Glaucous-winged, California, Heermann's, Ring-billed, Mew, Bonaparte's, and Franklin's.

At Green Point in Washington Park was one immature Franklin's Gull. It flew right by the shoreline, going left. This was only the second Franklin's I have found in the county. Also present were lots of Glaucous-winged and Glaucous-winged X Western Gull hybrids, as well as at least two "good" Westerns. One or two California Gulls joined the bigger gulls and a score or more of Heermann's there. A few Mew Gulls were also there. There were a very few Common Murres, Marbled Murreletes, and Rhinoceros Auklets there, but oddly enough, no Pigeon Guillemots. Perhaps the wind, which was strong enough to knock my tripod over, had something to do with that.

At March's Point were eleven Bonaparte's Gulls, right at the northern tip of the point, along with the more usual Ring-bills and Glaucous-winged. There were also at least 550 Double-crested Cormorants.

Also of note in Skagit County today were three flocks of Long-billed Dowitchers: 8 at Whitmarsh (March's Point), 17 in Lyman, and 35 on Cockreham Island.

Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch



Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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