Dear Tweeters,

Thanks to Ryan Merrill and to Howard Armstrong for
getting word out on that fabulous Booby!

I think I missed the bird by an hour or less; when I
got out to Samish Island, Ryan's binoculars and
Howard's scope were still smoking. After that, I spent
several hours at March's Point and back again at
Samish Island, with no luck, other than a lovely
evening spent looking at gulls, alcids, terns, and
whatnot.

This week, rather than spend a frustrating time
looking for a sulid that may be out at sea by now, I
took the kids camping to smoky Okanogan County. There
were lots of fun birds at Alta Lake (state park and
golf course): a Peregrine, lots of Pygmy Nuthatches,
Great Horned and Northern Pygmy Owl calling at the
campground, Canyon Wren singing at the golf course,
and a couple of Lazuli Buntings at the campground. At
Klipchuck, where the air quality was better, there
were two or three Williamson's Sapsuckers.

Today I found 8 species of shorebirds at Channel
Drive, near LaConner: a half-dozen Long-billed
Dowitchers, one Greater and a dozen or so Lesser
Yellowlegs, twenty Least Sandpipers, a dozen or so
Westerns, two Semipalmated Sandpipers, two Baird's
Sandpipers, and two Red-necked Phalaropes. There were
also hundreds of migrating swallows, mostly Barn, with
a few each of Rough-winged, Tree, and Cliff. Two teal
flew by, showing blue wing patches, but no other
discernible marks visible in their hasty flight. A
Peregrine and a harrier or two kept the shorebirds
moving about, but not too frantically.


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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