Dear Tweeters,

Yesterday, I had a similar type of day as that reported by Dennis Paulson--not very many saltwater birds were around. I went looking for them at Rosario Head, Green Point, March Point, and Samish Island, and found the numbers low and the variety a bit on the short side. And I didn't see any Horned Larks, either!

Since today was the Oyster Run, I figured all of our coastal access spots would be noisy, so I headed to the Mount Hardy Burn, up in eastern Skagit County. I am glad I did.

In the gravel area at the Hardy Burn were at least 7 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS! That was the most I had seen up in this area since 1997. Other finches present here were 4 Red Crossbills, 2 CASSIN'S FINCHES, some flyover Evening Grosbeaks, and the usual Pine Siskins.

Besides finches, the gravel area also had lots of Audubon's Warblers, plus a Hermit Thrush, a Varied Thrush, a couple of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a White-crowned Sparrow, and several each Oregon Junco, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Clark's Nutcracker, Steller's Jay, and Hairy Woodpecker. A Red-breasted Sapsucker showed itself nicely.

It is very hard to find the trail going up into the burn now. There are many downed trees. While stumbling around trying to locate the trail, I found a female THREE-TOED WOODPECKER, about a hundred meters up from what used to be the trailhead. This was the first one I'd found at the burn since the summer of 1997. Other than the three-toed, I heard a Pileated Woodpecker, and saw a few other common birds, but it was nothing like the birding in the gravel area.

Back at the gravel area, once three o'clock rolled around, a raptor movement started, almost like clockwork. There were four each of Red-tailed Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk, plus a couple of unidentified raptors in the big, bright, blue sky. The two raptors that I had come here hoping to find, however--Northern Goshawk and Golden Eagle--were not to be found.

I visited the little wetland on the western edge of Hamilton on my way home. There were quite a few birds. Surprisingly, there were three Merlins perched in one conifer, surveying it all. A Marsh Wren was still singing here in the marsh.

Yours truly,

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