Dear Tweeters,

Thanks to Scott Atkinson for letting everyone know
about the Alder Flycatcher. This evening (Monday, June
21), Howard and Thais Armstrong and I went up and
found the bird, right by the cairn that Scott had
left.

We had parked at the boat launch lot, walked the trail
downstream, turned left at the confluence of the
Cascade and Skagit Rivers, and walked a few hundred
feet until we came to the cairn. The bird sang from a
brushy tangle to the right of the trail. This tangle
is at the edge of the riparian habitat along the lower
Cascade River. Later the bird flew to some small trees
in a field, from which it sang in the open. At that
point, we were looking from the trail towards a large
house, with the bird sometimes silhouetted against the
house.

We heard the Alder Flycatcher give its "rrree-beep!"
song many times. Willow Flycatcher songs had awoken me
at my house this morning, as they often do--the bird
we were listening to in Marblemount was not a Willow
Flycatcher. We also heard the Alder Flycatcher give
the "pip" call several times; it also gave its
abbreviated song a few times. Never did it give any
vocalizations characteristic of Willow Flycatchers.

We had distant but reasonably good views of the bird,
perhaps a hundred meters away, but for some reason,
none of us had brought a scope.

However, I was able to get some video of the bird. The
song is plainly audible on the tape, although the
image of the bird is not good enough to identify
it--even if it were possible to do so on looks alone.

On the walk back, we heard a Willow Flycatcher giving
its "wit" call, from brush near the Skagit River. The
difference between its calls and those of the Alder
Flycatcher was striking.

Thanks again, Scott!

=====

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com




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