Dear Tweeters,
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Today, 27 August 2012, I took a chance and went birding, although normally I don't like birding in such nice weather! There were quite a few good birds around in Skagit County.
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The West Ninety once again had lots of shorebirds. This was because the tide was way out, but just starting to come in--the same conditions I found here a few weeks ago, when I also had luck. Today there were about 500 Western Sandpipers, a few Leasts, 5 Greater and one Lesser Yellowlegs, one LB Dowitcher, 9 Sanderlings, at least 3 Baird's Sandpipers, four Red-necked Phalaropes, and over 40 Black-bellied Plover. Eight Greater White-fronted Geese flew over, heading south and calling.
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Washington Park was very, very slow, but I did see my first Red-necked Grebe of the season.
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At Jensen Access were a few Baird's and Pectoral Sandpipers,?three Black-bellied Plover, and a few small flocks of Least and Western Sandpiper. The bird of the day here for me was an American Bittern, flying up and around the marsh and getting the shorebirds worked up.
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Yours truly,
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Gary Bletsc
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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!"