Dear Tweeters,

A well-described Grey Catbird was reported from the power line road in Marblemount (Skagit County) yesterday. Today I spent the first three hours after dawn walking up and down that stretch, but did not find it.

A starling there was doing some amazing imitations; I am still not sure if there was a Killdeer in the area, or just the starling imitating one. I did hear some odd vocalizations that a more sanguine birder might have called a Catbird, but I wanted visual confirmation. That starling could have convinced me that my own mother was hiding in the shrubbery.

The consolation prize was a House Wren building a nest in a birdhouse. I had not seen one in Skagit County east of Hamilton before.

At Rockport Quarry was a pair of Nashville Warblers. At Marblemount Boat Launch was my first Red-eyed Vireo of the year. At the Newhalem Ag Ponds were a heard-only Dusky Flycatcher (dew-hick), a heard-only Red-eyed Vireo, and a heard-only American Redstart. I ran into Phil Wegener there; thanks to Phil for playing an AMRE recording so I could be sure that that was what I was hearing. Phil told me that a Veery was reported there earlier last week.

At Corkindale Creek were two Western Kingbirds and one Eastern Kingbird.

At Sauk Mountain Road, above the point where snow has the road blocked off (about mile 5.5) were two Grey Jays. I also got good looks at two hen Sooty Grouse; males were hooting in at least two places up there. The snow is melting fast from the last two miles before the trailhead. My thermometer read 30 degrees Celsius in the late afternoon sun on one logging road today.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch ?

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