Dear Tweeters,

Today at about five or five-thirty in the afternoon, a lone Turkey Vulture was seen soaring northwards in Skagit County. This was just north of Burlington and east of I-5; the bird crossed Cook Road and kept on course as I drove by.

California Gulls have arrived here. There were over 30 at Cockreham Island yesterday, and four at the riverbar in Burlington, just upstream from the Burlington Boulevard Bridge. Also in this flock were quite a few Glaucous-winged, a lone Ring-bill, a few dozen Mew, as well as a bird that I am calling a first-winter Herring Gull.

At my house near Lyman, a Northern Shrike has visited for four days running. Today it caught and ate a large black beetle and a big fat bumblebee. I wish this bird would do what a Northern Shrike did here a few years ago, and snatch a starling....

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch



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