Tweets - I tried unsuccessfully for the Whooper Swan today; there were a few
swans near Milltown, but none with yellow beaks, at least that I could find.
Several other people tried through the day too, and I didn't hear of anyone
who had success. Of course, within a 5-mile radius there are plenty of
swans. I found and scoped some, while others were either too far away or
were too muddy to check.

As a consolation, I spent the middle part of the day at the Skagit WMA off
Wylie Rd southwest of Conway. Matt Bartels had posted of several good birds
there yesterday, which lured quite a few birders for a visit today.

Greg Toffic was there, and joined me in looking over a flock of Dark-eyed
Juncos along the west edge of the boat launch parking lot. We were
chatting, when he casually said, "Oh, there's the Tree." Sure enough, at
the top of the bush was an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW that gave us a very nice
long look.

We searched a couple of flocks of PINE SISKIN, but were unable to pull out a
Common Redpoll today, but we were surprised to have a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE
fly overhead near the boatlaunch. Later, the bird was found by some other
birders near the entrance to the west parking lot, where it posed for us
all.

Down the dike trail we bumped into Penny Koyama and Rachel Lawson who
pointed out the PINE GROSBEAKS. They reported about a dozen, though by the
time I got there only about 3 were visible. They'd also had a couple of
WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS along the dike. Further around we had a
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, and a couple in front of us flushed a GREAT HORNED OWL
(being chased by a Sharpie, they told us later), and an AMERICAN BITTERN.

Lots of nice looks at NORTHERN HARRIER, including at least 1 adult male,
some PURPLE FINCH, and the usual assortment of sparrows, swans, and Snow
Geeese made for an enjoyable day.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net