Hi Tweeters,

A single Rusty Blackbird closely resembling The Sibley Guide to Birds
depiction of an adult female nonbreeding plumage was seen at the Mann Rd.
section (aka headquarters area) of the Skagit Wildlife Area. The bird was
seen just off the edge of the gravel parking lot nearest the boat ramp,
sitting in salmonberry about three feet above the ditch at the south end of
the parking area. It stuck around long enough for eleven of us to watch it
from about 15-20' away, before it flew a short distance south along the
dike.

We also scoped a single Bewick's Swan (Olor columbianus bewickii) in a flock
of several hundred Tundra and Trumpeter Swans off Polson Rd., south of its
intersection with Moore Rd. This is near where several others have reported
a Bewick's Swan this winter. The extensive yellow bill base closely
resembled the depictions in Steve Madge and Hilary Burn's Waterfowl (1988)
and in the Sibley Guide to Birds. As far as I know, Bewick's is still
considered a race of Tundra Swan, the Palearctic counterpart of North
American Tundra ("Whistling") Swans, and it breeds across most of
high-Arctic Siberia.

Good birding, Bob

Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, WA