Dear Tweeters,

It was a good birding weekend in Skagit County, despite the rain.

On Saturday, I saw single Pacific Loons at Green Point and Samish Island.

Today, I saw a White-throated Sparrow at the Game Range. It was actually singing. The facial stripes were white. It was right by the slough that you cross when you first enter the Game Range by car, before the fork that goes to boat launch or HQ parking area.

Also at the Game Range were quite a few Audubon's Warblers and Cedar Waxwings.

At Hayton Preserve today were four species of geese. There were about 2000 to 3000 Snow Geese. Among them were six Blue Geese, a high number for this area. Two were adult, four immature. There was a single Cackling Geese, a bit over 50 Canada Geese, and 20 or so White-fronted.

At Jensen Access, I ended up spending five hours! Marv Breece showed up--what a surprise to see Marv there! We saw 4 Pacific Golden Plovers, close to 100 Black-bellied Plover, and a few Killdeer.

There were five or six Greater Yellowlegs, and a surprisingly late Lesser Yellowlegs.

There were perhaps about 20 Long-billed and two or three Short-billed Dowitchers, but Marv and I were not sure of the breakdown of how many of each there were. Several Wilson's Snipe flew overhead.

Calidrids included about 1000 Dunlin, a few each Western and Least, and one or two birds we couldn't identify.

Oh, and there were about 20 Pectoral Sandpipers, and ho hum, a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper!

Plus, one adult and one juvenile Northern Shrike, and a Short-eared Owl!
Great day to be out birding!

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