Subject: [Tweeters] a few fun birds in Skagit
Date: Feb 19 19:09:43 2005
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Tweeters,

Things are slowly looking toward spring here in the
lower middle upper Skagit Valley. American Robins are
suddenly everywhere, Black-capped Chickadees and Song
Sparrows are singing, and raptors are moving around.

Today I visited Grandy Lake, which has had very, very
few passerines all winter, as usual. Today there were
American Robins, a Varied Thrush, four Song Sparrows,
some Black-capped Chickadees, and also two Common
Ravens, a Winter Wren, and some Pine Siskins (the
latter three being about the only passerines that are
usually there in mid-winter). Red-breasted Sapsuckers
were drumming, and a male Downy Woodpecker was
foraging nearby. The winter duck flock on the lake is
as strong as usual, but with far fewer Ring-necked
Ducks and quite a few more Mallards than has recently
been the case.

Near Lyman there were quite a few raptors soaring
about. There was a mini-kettle of four or five Bald
Eagles, a couple of Red-tailed Hawks, a Northern
Harrier, and another soaring raptor that I think was a
Northern Goshawk (just too far away for me to ID,
though).

Yesterday at dusk, a Northern Pygmy Owl was sitting on
a telephone wire just east of Lyman, on the
Lyman-Hamilton Road. On the shores of the river nearby
were 28 Common Mergansers, preening on a sandbar.

=====

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com




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