I had the good fortune of meeting up with Matt Bartels just as I reached the
Northern Waterthrush spot at the Skagit Game Range off Wylie Road. I had
just seen a peregrine, some song sparrow, and my dog had flushed a snipe but
I had not started phishing. Phishing was not immediately effective but the
bird responded quickly to Matt's Ipod and gave good views. We spent the
next couple of hours scanning several mixed flocks of Starlings, Brewer's
Blackbirds, and Red-winged Blackbirds. The largest flock on Dike Rd on the
other side of the Skagit River had at least a thousand blackbirds including
a couple of Brown-headed but no Rusty we could find anywhere. Other good
birds for me were Fox, Lincoln , and Savanna Sparrow (1 to a few of each),
and 8 Eurasian Collared Doves all on the wires near the boat launch near the
corner of Fir Island and Dike Rd.



I had a great day and my dog did also, especially while swimming around some
Pink Salmon carcasses in the Skagit River.



Bob Schmidt, Bothell, WA

bobs at world hyphen wide dot com