Dear Tweeters,

Howard Armstrong and I had a good day today birding on Fir Island, even though we dipped on the specialties we were trying for. We thought we heard the Waterthrush, and I may have glimpsed it. We settled for a Hermit Thrush instead. Also at the Game Range was an American Bittern flying out over the marsh, and a Northern Shrike. I ended up seeing four Northern Shrikes in various places today. The one at the Game Range was making a shrill whistle and some whisper songs that had Howard and me wondering for a while.

At the N end of Wylie Road was a flock of four or more Golden Plovers; consensus among the various birders out there was for Pacific. The flock of blackbirds did not cooperate. We also saw on Pectoral Sandpiper there at Wylie Road, and maybe twenty Killdeer.

At Hayton Preserve was a flock of 2500 or more Snow Geese, among which were two Blue Geese and three Cackling Geese. A flock of 19 Greater White-fronted Geese flew over, accompanied by two Canadas, so we saw four and a half goose species at one location!

There were a few American Pipits today, but no longspurs. Also odd was the lack of Savannah Sparrows--they seem to have moved on.

Even without seeing the specialties today, it was a wonderful day to be out there. We bumped into quite a few birding friends out there today, which was also fun.

Yours truly,

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

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