Subject: [Tweeters] Skagit Loggerhead, Say's, bluebird, bobcat
Date: Mar 26 18:58:02 2011
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Tweeters,

After rushing up to the Upper Skagit on Thursday and dipping on the cool birds that Ryan Merrill had found on Wednesday, I decided to go up there today (3-26-2011) and try again. Glad I did.

An adult LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE was foraging actively at the big pasture below Sauk Mountain, along SR 20, between Hornbeck Lane and the road that goes up Sauk Mountain. When I spotted it, the bird was foraging from the fenceline opposite Alder Lane (Drive?), a private road.

Randy Knapp and Phil Wegener came along just as I was leaving--after I'd watched the bird for about an hour. They were in agreement that it was a Loggerhead. I took some abjectly wretched photos with my little camera, but also sketched the bird and wrote exhaustive notes. It was dark grey, smaller than an American Robin, had no white above the base of the upper mandible, had only a tiny hook at the end of the bill (which was stubby and all black), and had a broad black mask with no white above the eye. It fed voraciously, apprently on small insects, with a more active and nervous manner than I have seen in a Northern Shrike. I watched it cough up a little black pellet.

After watching the bird with Randy and Phil, I headed upriver. We met up again at Corkindale, where we were able to locate a single male MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD on the north side of SR 20 at Corkindale Creek. To see this bird, we walked in the gate at last year's Black-and-white Warbler spot. This bird was foraging in a wide area of pastures east of the creek, using barbed-wire fences for perches.

At the Marblemount Boat Launch, we had barely driven in the entry road when a SAY'S PHOEBE made a sally to catch a flying insect. We observed this bird from the entry road as it perched on the stovepipe and gable of the big house that sits at the edge of this property. Later we watched it for a while as it foraged from saplings and posts in the fields on the upstream part of the parcel.

Phil spotted a BOBCAT here at the boat launch. We watched it for a good fifteen minutes as it stalked what we presume were small mammals in the field among the sapling evergreens. The cat had bright orangish-brown coloration to its pelt, a variety that Randy told me is called "orange pelage." This predator was so splendid that I have to give it "bird of the day" status over the Loggerhead Shrike! I took some photos of the bobcat, which turnd out just as "National Squintographic" as my shrike ones.

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?.??