Dear Tweeters,

Last night I heard flocks of geese or perhaps swans
flying over my place near Lyman (Skagit County). I
could not place the calls by ear, and it was dark and
cloudy, so there was no visual ID possible. They
weren't Canadas. It was a gentle, two-noted call,
somewhat like Snow Geese in quality. However,
sometimes when I hear Tundra Swans, it sounds somewhat
gooselike to me. I made a mental note of the sound,
ran inside, and then listened to my Stokes CD's, but
still was not sure. I figure the possibilities for
this migrant flock would be Snow Geese, White-fronted
Geeese, or Tundra Swans. Any thoughts?

Other cool birds in Skagit included:

50 American Pipits at Avon-Allen and Josh Wilson Roads
on April 16;

2 Short-eared Owls at the Samish Flats West Ninety on
April 16 (rather late);

A Townsend's Solitaire drinking from the birdbath at
my place near Lyman yesterday;

an albinistic male Red-winged Blackbird at my place;
it looked a lot like a gigantic American Restart, with
flamboyant white "redstart patches" in the tail; it's
been there for two days;

8 or more Cinnamon Teal at a small pond east of Lyman.

=====

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com





__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25
http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash