Dear Tweeters,

Today (25 July 2011) was a pretty good day to bird in eastern Skagit County, although heavy rain did set in during the late afternoon, and highway repairs on SR 20 made for several annoying delays.

On the way up, I stopped briefly at the Van Horn Ponds, where an Eastern Kingbird, first spotted by Josh Parrott on July 4, was giving a Red-tailed Hawk an earful. This year, Eastern Kingbirds don't seem to be in evidence at Corkindale, so the Van Horn birds might be the only ones in Skagit. Josh had seen two, apparently a pair, at Van Horn Ponds on the fourth of July, so maybe a pair is breeding there.

I tried once again for American Redstarts at NP 213 Road, but no dice. Neither did I see the Nashville Warbler that was there last week. Hammond's Flycatchers are still hanging in here, though.

Most of the rest of my day was spent at the Hardy Burn, despite the presence of some very noisy highway maintenance equipment right there on the highway.

In the sand-pile area were at least 6 Cassin's Finches, perching in the same two leafless trees where they always do. About 15 Evening Grosbeaks were the dominant birds here. In the largest sand pile is a small, hollowed-out niche, maybe a yard high and a foot or two wide at most. The finches, especially the grosbeaks, kept going inside this little niche, presumably finding whatever minerals they crave in abundance there. Pine Siskins joined in too. A Red Crossbill or two flew over. Oddly absent here were swifts and ravens.

I did the laborious hike up into the base of the burn, not expecting much. At the very bottom of the burn, I just stopped and waited, making some pygmy-owl toots to get birds stirred up. There was a lot of passerine action, including an Olive-sided Flycatcher, two Grey Jays, a Clark's Nutcracker, a Warbling Vireo, and, quite surprising, a HOUSE WREN. I had never seen one here before. Warblers included one each of Yellow, MacGillivray's, and Wilson's, and a few each of Audubon's and Townsend's.
There were also Oregon Juncoes and at least one Chipping Sparrow up in the burn.

As I waited around in hopes of Three-toed Woodpeckers, which never showed, a couple of hummingbirds came in and perched very close by. It turned out to be a Rufous and a Calliope! The Rufous kept chasing the Calliope off its perches.

Later, down in the sand pit area, at least one, and probably two Calliopes perched in the dead trees where the Cassin's Finches go--not the first time I have seen Calliopes in those trees.

The only quasi-raptor up there today was a Turkey Vulture.

Afterwards, I did the first half-mile or so of the Easy Pass Trail, which was very quiet.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch




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?.??