Dear Tweeters,

A beginning birdwatcher gave me a perfect description
of a White-tailed Ptarmigan. The bird was on Sahalee
Arm, reached via a strenuous hike from Cascade Pass,
which is in turned reached by hiking up from the
trailhead at the end of the Cascade River Road in
Skagit County. The observer told me he also obtained
photos. This was on Sunday, 8-29-05.

Howard Armstrong and I found about 91 species of birds
in Skagit County on 8-30-05, including 14 shorebird
species. Highlights included 200 + Heermann's Gulls
and over 115 Common Murres at Rosario Head. At Channel
Drive we saw at least one Long-billed and around a
dozen Short-billed Dowitchers, a Semipalmated
Sandpiper, hundreds of Leasts and Westerns, 3
Pectorals, 3 Spotted Sandpipers, 1 Greater and about
15 Lesser Yellowlegs, and a few Blue-winged Teal with
other ducks. The trick was to get there about four
hours before the high tide published in the newspaper.
Several recent visits to Channel Drive have shown it
to be a dull spot at high tide, for then there is no
mud for shorebirds.

At Jensen Access on Fir Island we saw a single
Whimbrel, and a flock of about 250 Black-bellied
Plover came in. These birds landed in fields between
the Jensen Access and the Snow Goose preserve, so we
could not check them for golden plovers. Everywhere we
went on Fir Island were small flocks of Wilson's Snipe
flying around.

At the Game Range we surprised two Green Herons out by
the dike. A Virginia Rail was calling spontaneously
nearby. We were very happy to end the day with a flock
of 21 Greater White-fronted Geese that came flying in
over the dike.

The 14 shorebird species we found were:

Black Oystercatcher (one at Rosario);
Killdeer (here and there);
Black-bellied Plover (100's on Fir Island);
Whimbrel;
Greater Yellowlegs;
Lesser Yellowlegs;
Spotted Sandpiper;
Long-billed Dowitcher;
Short-billed Dowticher;
Wilson's Snipe;
Pectoral Sandpiper;
Western Sandpiper;
Least Sandpiper;
Semipalmated Sandpiper.

Howard and I agreed that, if we had looked for
passerines at dawn and dusk, it would have been easy
to find 100 species that day. Good birding!


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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