Dear Tweeters,
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Today (20 August 2012) I was able to find some mountain bird species in Skagit County. Two Pine Grosbeaks and two Three-toed Woodpeckers were along the trail between Rainy and?Cutthroat Passes. These were each single birds?found in separate areas. It took me a lot of slow strolling and listening to find these birds, and I never got anywhere near to reaching Cutthroat Pass. There were also a lot of Mountain Chickadees along the way. I heard a Clark's Nutcracker here, and was shadowed by Grey Jays on two occasions.
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One place to search for the grosbeaks and woodpeckers is just before the trail reaches the crossing of Porcupine Creek, where it is relatively easy to hike upslope from the trail, along the edges of a seep. Here I found four feathers near the seep. I photographed them and put them on my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gary_bletsch/?and would love it if someone could ID them.
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I stopped at the Hardy Burn on the way up in the morning. It was overcast and chilly, and very quiet, but I did see a few?Clark's Nutcrackers, a Warbling?Vireo, and a Wilson's Warbler.?Unlike the last three years, this year has not been good for Cassin's Finch and Calliope Hummingbird at the burn. I did see a lone Cassin's there a few weeks ago, but today there were none. No Calliopes have been there when I've visited this summer.
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Also on the way up, there were lots of birds at the big, sandy pullout just above Swamp Creek, and just east of the Hardy Burn. There were about ten Chipping Sparrows, two Lincoln's Sparrows, two Brown-headed Cowbirds, and a bunch of American Robins. I think what attracted these birds was a huge swarm of tiny grasshoppers.
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However, on the way back, I stopped again, and saw something interesting. Through the scope, I could see four slim-looking passerines way up on the summit of the peak, flying around, landing on branches of burned trees, and flycatching. They were a kilometer or more away, but I was sure they weren't robins, warblers, or finches. Best guess would be Mountain Bluebird, but who knows?!
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Yours truly,
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Gary Bletsch

Gary Bletsch

Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA

garybletsch at yahoo.com

"Nun," sagte ich, "wenn ich ein Taugenichts bin, so ist's gut, so will ich in die Welt gehen, und mein Glueck machen." Und eigentlich war mir das recht lieb, denn es war mir kurz vorher selber eingefallen, auf Reisen zu gehen, da ich die Goldammer, welche im Herbst und Winter immer betruebt an unserm Fenster sang: "Bauer, miet' mich, Bauer, miet' mich!" nun in der schoenen Fruehlingszeit wieder ganz stolz und lustig vom Baume rufen hoerte: "Bauer, behalt' deinen Dienst!"