Subject: [Tweeters] pishing for Ancient Murrelets
Date: Oct 28 20:53:17 2011
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Tweeters,

Today, after missing some rare birds that had been reported in the Upper Skagit, I went down to Green Point (at Washington Park in Anacortes) to try for Ancient Murrelets, since it was so stormy, seeming propitious for seabirds.

As soon as I got there around three in the afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The four common alcids were there, as were quite a few other nice birds, but no Ancients.

As I was leaving at about five-thirty, a Song Sparrow and a Spotted Towhee came out onto the greensward, and I heard a few other passerines, so I began pishing.

Immediately, I heard an odd, finchlike call behind me, coming, as I thought, from the beach. Actually, this "chertlee-chertlee-cher" call was coming from three ANCIENT MURRELETS just offshore! It certainly was a passerine-like vocalization they gave. I pished a few more times, and there seemed to be a correlation between my pishes and the calls of the birds. Soon, though, they drifted west toward the dazzling sun, so I left them.

Earlier in the day, I had spent much of the morning trying to track down a Blue Jay that had been seen in Grassmere--no dice. Ditto for the American Tree Sparrow that had passed through Corkindale.

At Howard Miller Steelhead Park, it was rather quiet, but a NORTHERN PYGMY OWL put on a good show, getting all the chickadees and kinglets stirred up.

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?.??