Dear Tweeters,

It was easy to observe migrating raptors from the Mount Hardy Burn parking area today. This spot is in far eastern Skagit County, along SR 20.

Raptors seen from that vantage included:

Golden Eagle, one subadult;
Sharp-shinned Hawk, 5 or more;
Cooper's Hawk, 2 or more;
Northern Goshawk, 1;
Red-tailed Hawk, 5.

There was also a probable Northern Harrier and a few unidentified Accipiters.

The Accipiters were not only soaring along the ridge of Mount Hardy, they were also hunting around the sand-piles of the parking area. A young Cooper's repeatedly perched within ten meters of me or less, staying for at least a half an hour.

About thirty Black Swifts and a few Vaux's flew over about noontime.

About a mile to the east of the Hardy Burn area, I stopped along the highway again. Two Sharp-shinned Hawks (a male and a female) were taking on five or six Clark's Nutcracker's, with no success at all. The hawks and the corvids were doing a lot of vocalizing. Several times, one of the hawks would be inches from a flying nutcracker, claws ready to gripe, and the nutcracker would just veer off to one side and get away.

It was a beautiful late morning and early afternoon, after which the rain came on with a vengeance. I managed a quick stop at the County Line Ponds, just in time to see a couple of American Dippers and a MacGillivray's Warbler; then it really started pouring.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch ? Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA ? garybletsch at yahoo.com ? ?

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