Dear Tweeters,

Today was a good day for neotropical migrants in the Lyman-Birdsview area of Skagit County.

The only Yellow-rumped Warbler of the day was an Audubon's that's been hanging around my yard, but up at Rasar State Park, I saw 7 species of warblers, almost all of which were in one little area.

In the big trees of the park were quite a few singing Black-throated Greys.

The southeast corner of the park is often the best for migrants. Today there were lots of warblers in there: several Common Yellowthroats, five or six Orange-crowned, one or two Nashvilles, a Wilson's or two, two Yellows, and one MacGillivray's.

In this same spot, I saw my first Bullock's Oriole of the year, a female, plus a Willow Flycatcher. While I was watching the passerines, a flock of about 10 Vaux's Swifts foraged aloft, and a Spotted Sandpiper called from a cobble bar in the river, which is a literal cobble's throw from where all the warblers were.

All of this was in the early afternoon--I didn't even need to make an early start of it to find these birds.

In other sections of the park were Warbling Vireos, Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Swaninson's Thrushes, and so forth.

Now for the woodpecker question. I saw a male Picoides woodpecker that seemed too big for a Downy and too little for a Hairy. It never called. This bird had only the tiniest traces of black marks in the corners of the white outer rectrices. The bill was long for a Downy's bill, but still not Hairy length. I estimated that the distance from the base of the bill to its tip, if that distance were measured backwards, would then reach from the base of the bill to a point a few millimeters behind the rear edge of the eye.

Later on, I got good look at a couple of Hairy Woodpeckers--they are breeding in the park. They were much bigger, of course.

I doubt that the oddball bird that I saw was a hybrid, but--do Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers hybridize?

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch


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