Dear Tweeters and Wayne Weber,

Thanks for thinking of us inhabitants of the flood plain, Wayne. We have water all around our house, all over the barn, and a fathom deep in the root cellar--but nothing in the house. The good news was, the Great Egret that had not been seen for a few days in its usual slough up by Hamilton (Skagit County) turned up across the highway from us, making for yard bird number 80!

Also of note in the inundated area was a California Gull that stayed almost all day, always right by the side of Highway Twenty, loosely associating with some Glaucous-winged Gulls.

While walking along the highway with my dog, watching from a few hundred metres away the torrents streaming past our house, I saw several salmon in the roadside ditch, looking very much out of place over a mile from the river. There were also several voles, a muskrat, and a shrew by the roadside. The shrew climbed up the dog's leg, and, great hunter that she is, she still couldn't catch it. The neighbor's dog was diving into the pools, catching various "varmints" as I was told. I was wondering whether the gulls were catching small mammals by the roadside. Perhaps the egret (and the Great Blue Heron nearby) were doing the same thing. The first Bald Eagles I have seen in our neighborhood in months showed up today also. Good hunting for them, too, I suppose.

A neighbor lady told me she had resuced a small garter snake--I have not seen any snakes in weeks.

Finally, getting down to the invertebrate level, the insect life during the flood has been astonishing. Angry yellowjackets are everywhere. Odd little flies, somewhat similar to fruit flies, were swarming all over my head as I tried to walk up the flooded roads. Numerous large black beetles (over a centimeter in body length) were floating by in the flood; woolly bears were clinging to grass stalks, and a few termites were flying around, no doubt looking to chew on some water-softened houses.

Good birding!

"Wayne C. Weber" <contopus at telus.net> wrote:
Tweeters,

I regret, in my last message to TWEETERS, having complained about all
the rain here in Vancouver on October 16 and 17. It seems that Seattle
and much of western Washington got even more rain yesterday than
Greater Vancouver did last week. I sincerely hope that nobody on
Tweeters has suffered the effects of flooding in their home.

At any rate, last summer's drought is officially over, and there
should be lots of standing water now in places that haven't had any
since last winter or early spring. It should be interesting to see how
birds adapt to this sudden change in their habitat.

Good luck and good birding,

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net




Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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