Dear Tweeters,

Today I went up to the Finney Creek Road (Forest Road 17, off the Concrete-Sauk Valley Road in Skagit County). This is a very lightly birded area; I myself hadn't been up there in years. In years past, it was possible to find Spotted Owls and Three-toed Woodpeckers in this area, sometimes called the "Finney Unit" of the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie Nat'l Forest. It is still a nice place to bird, very quiet and out-of-the-way. Luckily for me, the road maintenance crews on the lower portion of the road were just donning their orange vests by time I was finished birding at around 0825.

Although it's an active logging area, there are still nice patches of forest on Finney, including some old growth here and there. I had hoped to find Western Screech Owls, a species I had seen there once in the early 1990's, but I had indolently slept in until 2:30 AM, and so didn't get up there until four-ish.

There is much good screech-owl habitat to search, but this time of year, it would help to get a midnight start.

After missing the owls, I enjoyed a very nice dawn chorus. It included counterpoint by road-buzzing Common Nighthawks. Passerines were singing in good numbers all the way to mile marker 18, where I turned back. About halfway up, a Ruffed Grouse on the road stayed close by, while its chicks made faint peeping noises from somewhere in the bush.

The highlight of my visit to Finney was a big bobcat bounding down the road! In a rockslide, I got good looks at some pikas, too.

Another mammal puzzled me. I have seen this same critter on the Illabot Creek Road. This is a reddish-brown mammal about the size of a black rat. The tail seems short, the legs short, too. They run across forested sections of road in the morning, have a hunch-backed appearance, and I have no idea what they are!

At Martin Road near Rockport was an Eastern Kingbird. Over at Barnaby Slough, I was surprised to see Greg Toffic and his brother Jeff. We birded there for a while, and saw another Eastern Kingbird. Three species of vireos were singing there (lots of Red-eyed, several Warbling, and one Cassin's).

The Skagit County Line Ponds were practically birdless.

At the Newhalem "Ag" Ponds, the Toffics and I were treated to nice views of a singing male American Restart; another male was singing somewhere nearby. Later on, a Veery spontaneously started calling, then sang a few times, although it was late afternoon.

I ended my long day of birding up at the Hardy Burn parking area, where Greg and Jeff joined me once again in our game of vehicular tag. Although fairly quiet in the afternoon, the spot did produce a Grey Jay, a very tame pair of Evening Grosbeaks, and a Black Swift, among a few other species.

Yours truly,

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