Dear Tweeters,

Birding was a little slow today in the Upper Skagit Valley, but there were some fun birds to see.

The feeders next to the Bald Eagle Interpretive Center in Rockport had lots of Evening Grosbeaks. The Harris's Sparrow, though, has apparently been gone for weeks now.

At Howard Miller Steelhead Park, the birding was quite slow, with just two or three Bald Eagles. Among a very few landbirds seen were an immature Red-tailed Hawk, a Hairy Woodpecker, and about forty Pine Siskins.

Stopping along the river here and there brought good looks at Common and Barrow's Goldeneyes, a scattering of Bald Eagles, and just two Common Mergansers.

One AMERICAN DIPPER showed briefly at the mouth of Corkindale Creek.

Views of Sauk Mountain, Mount Baker, and other peaks were breathtaking in the crisp air, making up somewhat for a fairly slow birding day.

Some of the more interesting birds turned up along the Concrete-Sauk Valley Road. Just west of the Bank Swallow nest site, at the big turnout by the Skagit River, a COOPER'S HAWK flew across the road and perched for a while. Then a PILEATED WOODPECKER started calling.

Near the community of Cedar Grove, closer to Concrete, an AMERICAN KESTREL was eating a prey item on a telephone wire. This was only the fourth or fifth time I'd seen an American Kestrel that far upriver during midwinter.

At the Concrete sewage lagoon was a nice collection of Goldeneyes, mostly Barrow's, as usual.

Roads are okay, but two lane restrictions caused ten-minute bottlenecks at: just east of Concrete on SR 20; south of Rockport on SR 530.

Although the Bald Eagle Festival is next week, it could be noted that one might see more eagles in one tree at West Edison (Samish Flats) than in a whole day of driving around the Upper Skagit right now!

Yours truly,


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