Hey Tweeters,
Today my mom and I birded the general Skagit area starting south at the game range and ending north at Sammish Island.
The best bird of the day was a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH at the eastern parking lot (the one not by the info center) of the Skagit game range (off fir island rd). It flew by me calling as I was standing by my car and we watched it frequent the slough around the lot. I can't remember if anyone saw one here last year or not but I was still excited to see it since it had been a while for me and I wasn't really expecting it. It was fairly easy to find when calling and not too scared of us.
As we headed out there was a large flock of snow geese right off the road on Mann rd being very tolerant of people and cars nearby. This was the first time I had ever seen them that close to the road, literally 10 feet from the car.
There wasn't a whole lot of anything between Fir Island and Sammish and really not much off Sammish Island either. We had a few Harlequins and Brant (waaay far out) off the State Park. On the way back we managed to find our only Rough-legged Hawk of the day soaring with a Red-tail - besides that we only had a few eagles, harriers, and a sharpie for the whole day.
Hope everyone enjoyed the good weather today and good birding.

-Brendan McGarry
Seattle/Olympia, WA