Dear Tweeters,

Today I birded the Fir Island Game Range in the morning. Coolest bird was a lone SANDHILL CRANE calling from afar, flying east along the dike, then turning around and flying west. Also at that location was the NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH. This bird was calling incessantly at the junction where the big new dike goes off to the right--near where Josh Parrott photographed it last weekend.

Unfortunately, a certain sanguinary activity involving guns, off-limit to discuss on Tweeters, has now begun; this activity was in full swing at the Game Range and at Jensen Access--as well as just across the slough from Hayton Preserve. Even so, there were some good shorebirding opportunities to be had, in-between shotgun blasts. Three DUNLIN foraged with 49 Black-bellied Plover at Jensen at low tide. There were three Semipalmated Plover there, along with hundreds of Western and a few Pectoral Sandpipers.

At Green Point were lots of Marbled Murrelets, about 45 Common Murres, plus a few Rhinos and a Pigeon Guillemot. Gulls there included, in order of abundance, Glaucous-winged, Mew, Heermann's, California, and Ring-billed.

Later in the day, I revisited Jensen at high tide. Two Whimbrels were perched atop a floating stump, but the gunfire was fast and furious, so I got out of there in a hurry.

Finally, it may be of interest to note that goodly numbers of sparrows--mostly Savannahs--were in view on Fir Island, as were a few small, scattered flocks of Vaux's Swifts.

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?.??