Dear Tweeters,

Despite the rain on Saturday, May 20, Bob Kuntz and I
managed to find 112 species of birds on an all-Skagit-
County big day. I think the record for this count is
115, so it was a good day. We didn't find anything all
that rare, but did locate most of the expected birds.
I think the most surprising species was a Red-throated
Loon off Samish Island. This bird was in near-breeding
plumage. I don't believe I have ever seen this species
in Skagit County in May before.

We began our day at 2:00 AM, looking for owls here and
there, but ended up with only Barn and Great Horned
Owls. Dawn found us up in the easternmost portion of
Skagit County, at the Mount Hardy Burn area. We found
quite a few Hermit Thrushes there, heard some Blue
Grouse, and had a visit from two Grey Jays, but the
morning rain made bird-finding difficult up there, and
we missed some of the specialties we were hoping for.

10 Whimbrel were on Burmaster Road, east of
Sedro-Woolley. Varying numbers of Whimbrel had been
feeding in a dirt field there for over a week. Those
birds were not there today, so I think the Whimbrel
run is over here.

We also found small flocks of Black-bellied Plover on
Alice Bay and Fir Island; the Alice Bay flock included
two Dunlin. Two Greater Yellowlegs were in West
Edison. At the Fir Island Game Range were at least
four American Bitterns, two Olive-sided Flycatchers,
and two Western Wood-Pewees.

Today I saw a Blue-winged Teal at Burmaster Road; we
missed that bird on Saturday, although it was probably
there, hidden in the grasses. Two Cinnamon Teal were
near LaConner, and another on Fir Island. However, Bob
and I agreed that there seem to be very few Cinnamon
and Blue-winged Teal in Skagit County this spring.

Although we didn't have any real "big misses," I do
wish I had heard the Western Tanagers that Bob heard;
I kept thinking, "Oh, we'll run into more of those
later." We did end the day with no Pileated
Woodpeckers, no California Quail, no Brown Creeper or
Red-breasted Nuthatch, no Pine Siskin (not surprising
this year), and no House Wren. Those were mainly birds
in whose habitats we just didn't spend enough time.
Next year, perhaps I will purchase a Ferrari so that
we can visit more habitats during the daylight
hours...

Bob and I had numerous discussions about where to
start: upriver or downriver. This was the first time
we know of that such a Skagit century run started out
in the Mount Hardy/Rainy Pass area. It is still a moot
point whether it is better to start in the west, or
the east, and if starting in the east, how far east to
go!


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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