Tweeters:

Was up in central Skagit County this last weekend, mainly to take the boys fishing but had some incedental birding also. We caught nothing but had a swell time. Parking the car opposite Foxglove Lane (private, just east of the Cascade River bridge in Marblemount along Cascade River Rd), I could hear, from the public parking area for fishing access, among the innumerable Swainson's Thrushes singing, a single VEERY in the riparian gallery forest there on June 28 at about 5 a.m. There was no sign of the bird on Sunday, however. The same was true of a female YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD that turned up Saturday morning only, close by just west and very close to the bridge on the north side. Skagit County now has about 8 Veery records, June-July birds found at County Line, plus single visitors at Concrete, Rockport (a May 28th bird Anne Winskie and I had a few years back), and now Marblemount, and a single early Sept migrant at the Skagit WMA. The main breeding is, however, is just n.e. of the agg ponds upriver just within Whatcom, not Skagit, County.

NASHVILLE WARBLERS were found in several places. At the County Line ponds (specifically the access right at the Whatcom County sign, known as the "agg ponds" to some), I could not find the usual Am. Redstarts, but there is a small dirt road nearly opposite on the other side of Rt 20 and you can bird a brushy area underneath the power lines. I pished here and had the first NASHVILLE nearly fly into my face, so excited was its response. Another NASHVILLE was singing just s.w. on a brushy slope near Damnation Creek's entry point into the Skagit River, about a mile downriver. Then two NASHVILLES were in song at the end of the Cascade River Rd., about 20 miles from Marblemount. By the way, the road ends a few miles from where it did historically, owing to a washout.

At Corkindale Creek, I had a single E. KINGBIRD and 18 BANK SWALLOWS. This is the traditional site for the kingbird but this was my highest count for the swallows. BLACK SWIFTS were scattered in places along the Cascade River Rd., often in the company of Vaux's.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com
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