Birders,



Yesterday, Groundhog Day, I was able to spend most of the afternoon birding
in Skagit and NW Snohomish Counties. The sun was shining for a good part of
the afternoon, and the groundhog would have seen his shadow- if we had any
groundhogs in western WA, which we don't, so maybe it does not mean another
6 weeks of winter weather!



In Burlington, the ROCK WREN, first reported on Jan. 25 by Paul DeBruyn, was
easy to find- it appeared within less than 5 minutes after I got out of my
car. It is right near the intersection of North Hills Boulevard and
Hillcrest Drive, at the base of Burlington Hill on the north side. I parked
at the south end of North Hills, only 100 yards south of this intersection.
Between the end of the road and the base of the hill is a flat area with a
few small piles of rocks-looks like marginal habitat for a Rock Wren, but
there the bird was. Most of the time, it perched in the open on the rock
piles, and it called quite a few times. However, for a while it skittered
off to the east, and for a few minutes it disappeared into a tangle of
Himalayan blackberry in most un-Rock Wrenlike fashion. Nonetheless, I was
able to get within less than 10 feet of it and snap quite a few photos. A
HERMIT THRUSH was also in the vicinity. At the cattail marsh on North Hills
Boulevard, I tried playing a VIRGINIA RAIL call, and shortly one responded,
in fact flew across an opening in the cattails, quite close to me.



I then proceeded to the Skagit Wildlife Area near Conway to see what I could
find. Things were pretty quiet, but the BLACK PHOEBE showed up again just
south of the parking lot near the boat launch. As usual it was quite vocal,
frequently giving its chip call. At least 6 MYRTLE (YELLOW-RUMPED) WARBLERS
were also feeding low in the alders near the phoebe. Along the highway
between Mount Vernon and Conway were at least 250 TRUMPETER SWANS in several
flocks, and more of them south of Conway.



Finally, I made a visit to Eide Road near Stanwood to look for the reported
GREAT EGRET. No luck on this bird, although there were numerous GREAT BLUE
HERONS and NORTHERN HARRIERS around. However, when it comes to looking for
rare birds, I figured that two out of three ain't bad, and headed for home.



Good luck and good birding,



Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net