A quick report on today's birding - how did it get so late?



I intended to spend most of the day at Samish flats, but called at Skagit on
the way up. The Skagit Game Range at the end of Wylie Road was very birdy in
spite of large amounts of gunfire, though admittedly most of those birds
were robins and juncos. It took me forty minutes to pin down a
white-throated sparrow in with a small flock of golden-crowneds about 100
yards along the trail from the boat-launch. Still a few cedar waxwings
around, along with all the usual suspects.



I headed up to Skagit, and found the pink guard rail along the 'private
lane' to West Edison, just off the Bayview-Edison Rd, but the brambles were
disappointingly bird-free - that might have been related to the pair of
red-tailed hawks sitting on the wires right overhead. About 5 minutes after
I arrived, Joel turned up on the same mission, and we split up to search for
the missing sparrow flocks. Joel pished up the Harris's sparrow with a flock
of white-crowneds directly across the road from the previous site - there's
a gated trail with a sign saying 'private dyke', and the sparrows were in
the brambles surrounding a small tree maybe 15 feet along. (As we were
peering over the fence, a woman stopped by in a SUV and told us we were fine
to walk the trail - her name was Heidi). As we watched, the sparrow flock,
Harris's included, moved across the road to the bushes near the pink
guardrail, then back to the south side brambles again. A very striking bird,
instantly obvious with its almost unmarked warm buffy cheeks, and a white
throat with just a thin line of black either side.



I birded the Samish flats a little more (mainly by car, since it was
starting to rain by then) - sadly all my short-eared owls were skilfully
disguised as northern harriers. Bagloads of bald eagles, of course, and
red-tails, plus a glorious rough-legged hawk sitting on the wires right at
the intersection of Bayview-Edison with Samish Island Rd. The first time I
saw it there, I pulled over to try for photos, but it was instantly spooked
by the pick-up that roared past. It was back in the same spot a little
later, though, and proved a very amenable bird, as I gradually crept the car
closer and closer along the shoulder, stopping and taking photos at
intervals.



So, two life bird Zonotrichia in a day for me. I failed in my half-hearted
hopes to pish up a swamp sparrow at the Skagit reserve, but as Meatloaf
sings it, 2 out of 3 ain't bad...



Louise Rutter

Kirkland