Dear Tweeters,

Yesterday (1-22-2011) five of us took a Skagit Audubon field trip to Rasar State Park. I suggested we not have lunch until we had found 15 species of birds in the park. We barely made that total--very quiet it was. The highlights were three Barrow's Goldeneyes at rather close range, and an American Dipper singing across the river. I could not believe it, but in a visit that lasted about two hours, we detected not one kinglet, not one Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and also missed Varied Thrush! That is hard to do at Rasar State Park.

On our way downriver again, we stopped at Cockreham Island. It was pretty quiet there, too, but we saw two American Kestrels.

Afterwards we tried for gulls around Sedro-Woolley, but there weren't any big gull flocks. One large, pink-legged gull at the middle school perplexed me. It had a bicolored bill like a Glaucous Gull, but seemed way too dark. It also had a broad, dull grey tail band. It appeared to be a third-year gull.

At the flats between Conway and Mount Vernon, east of I-5, we observed about 600 Trumpeter Swans and a very few Tundras. A flock of 21 Canada Geese showed up, but no white geese. The best bird of the day for me was a THAYER'S GULL that gave us a brief and rather distant view, before flying into a field that was just too danged far away. Also in this area were several honkin' big-posterior lenses.

We then visited the Game Range, but did not find the Black Phoebe.

As soon as the trip disbanded from there, I made a quick restroom break, and of course, on my way back to the car, there was the BLACK PHOEBE, calling and flycatching in its usual spot, right in front of the big new parking area, near the gap in the fence.

Yours truly,



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

Mentre che li occhi per la fronda verde
ficcava ?o s? come far suole
chi dietro a li uccellin sua vita perde, lo pi? che padre mi dicea: ?Figliuole,
vienne oramai, ch? ?l tempo che n?? imposto
pi? utilmente compartir si vuole?.??