Subject: [Tweeters] Skagit Blk Phoebe, Sharp-tailed S
Date: Sep 14 20:56:49 2010
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Tweeters,

Today at the Game Range on Fir Island, the Black Phoebe showed itself at about midday, directly in front of the gap in the parking-lot fence, right where it has been seen on and off since August 20, when Bob Hamblin first found it.

A number of birders waited around for the high tide to recede, and were rewarded with decent views of a (or "the") Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. This bird was in the fourth pond, as usual. There were a very few Pectoral Sandpipers present, but none of them were anywhere near the Sharp-tailed. This is the third time I have seen the Sharp-tailed out there this month, and today, as on the two other times, it foraged with Westerns, not with Pectorals that were present on one of the other ponds. I might add that Josh Parrott photographed TWO Sharp-tails here last week, so there may be more than just the one bird in this area.

I also saw one Western Tanager out there today, and lots of Audubon's Warblers.

Also at the Game Range today were the first waterfowl hunters I have seen in Skagit this season, going after Canadas. I very much hesitate to bring this up, but there was an ugly exchange between one hunter and a group of birders. I would venture to say that an unbiased observer who had witnessed the interaction would say the hunter was being rude and unreasonable. That, however, does not matter. I have already heard mutterings by state fish and game officials, wondering whether such sites "need" to be restricted to hunters only during hunting seasons. Birders visiting the Fir Island Game Range in the next few weeks will be pursuing shorebirds, at what has become the best shorebirding spot in the county--right in an area where waterfowl hunters set up. Things will presumably get interesting.

At DeBay's Slough today was a Hairy Woodpecker, a Rufous Hummingbird, a Vaux's Swift, a Swainson's Thrush, and a Lincoln's Sparrow. There are relatively few waterfowl at DeBay's right now.

Yours truly,

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