Dear Tweeters,

Today there were two juvenile RED-NECKED PHALAROPES at
the south pond at Cockreham Island, Skagit County
(near Lyman). They looked like carbon copies of the
two birds that were at Channel Drive yesterday. Also
at the Cockreham Island pond today was the small flock
of Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, and Least Sandpiper
that has been there lately.

At Jensen Access on Fir Island was a single
Semipalmated Plover and two dozen Black-bellied
Plover. Some of the birds in the Pluvialis flock may
well have been golden-plovers, as I could not make out
black axillars on all birds when they flew by. These
plovers tended to huddle in a big dirt field between
Jensen Access and Hayton Preserve, just east of a
farmhouse with a big American Flag. A birder might be
able to observe these birds from the roadside over
there.

Also at Jensen was a flock of seven YELLOW-HEADED
BLACKBIRDS, accompanied by four juvenile Brown-headed
Cowbirds. They were foraging in the marsh. Four years
ago, also in August, I observed a lone YH Blackbird
being chased around by a single juvenile cowbird here.
Interesting. There were also two more juvenile BHCO
hanging around a flock of Savannah Sparrows on the
access road. A lonely Least Sandpiper did a good job
of trying to look like a Long-toed Stint, but I was
not to be taken in by the toe-stretching exercises.

At Hayton Road there is a big dirt field by the
roadside. In the field were two dozen Killdeer and ten
or more Semipalmated Plover.

Most of the fields by Jensen and Hayton that had
fantastic shorebird flocks last summer have yet to be
ploughed up as of today. Perhaps after the John Deeres
get out there, the shorebird viewing may
improve--right now, a lot of the birds were very far away.


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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