It was a great weekend for migrant's in the Skagit County area! After work on Saturday I stopped by the US Bank on Riverside Drive (the branch near College Way) and was amazed to find the three trees that separate the bank from Ace hardware full of birds, amazingly there were 4 kinds of warblers with Nashville being the most numerous with three birds. I have only seen Nashville a few times on this side of the mountains and never more than one at a time. These birds were still there when I left after about a half an hour of taking photographs of them. Later Saturday, Dick Abbott and I went outside of Conway in the hills and had great looks at Wilson's, Black-throated Gray, Yellow-rumped, Common Yellowthroat, and Orange-crowned warblers. In addition, we had a very gray flycatcher that unfortunately remained silent. I think that it was a Hammond's Flycatcher.
Sunday I started out at Wiley with Mitch Blanton and quickly found Yellow Warbler. Other highlights were Greater White-fronted Geese and every local species of swallow except Bank. We met up with Dick Abbott and headed east from Conway to our destination of Lake Cavanaugh Rd. We stopped at a spot I call the Hutton's spot and quickly were able to call a Hutton's Vireo. Other birds at this stop were Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Black-throated Gray warbler, and Wilson's Warbler. Next stop was at the slough across from the gun range. We walked up the logging road with the metal gate. We again had Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Wison's warbler. Brown Creeper was singing away but the second clear cut that in the summer always has MacGillivray's had none. Perhaps it is still early for that bird even though it was one of the birds we had hoped for. This is my local Pygmy Owl spot and with just a little tooting we got a response from up the hill. We hiked up the hill
and had at least two pygmy owls tooting. Eventually one of the owls flew out to the very crown of a tree along the logging road. Very quickly it was being mobbed by Townsend's, Black-throated Gray warblers, Purple Finch and Chickadee's. The owl put on quite a show and we eventually left it still calling. We also added Cassin's Vireo, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Wood Duck at this spot. Next we went up the road and found an active Dipper nest under a bridge. Eventually, Mitch needed to call it a day but?Dick and I continued on for a while longer.? We?went to Eide Rd?but the only thing of interest was a Red-tail Hawk carrying what we believe was a rabbit that it dropped and right away an Eagle came rushing in but left with something small, not a rabbit - who know's what happened to the large animal the hawk was struggling to carry. ?Our last stop was at the Stanwood sewage treatment ponds. We entered from the east side and the plowed field east of
the lake as you walk in from this side had at least 24 Whimbrel in it. If that was not cool enough, we walked over to the two holding ponds. One is dry, but the one with water had 2 female Wilson's Phalaropes in it. What beautiful birds they are! Not a bad start to May. Birds we had hoped to see but dipped on were Warbling Vireo, Black-headed Grosbeak(although Dick had one male at his feeder on Saturday), Western Tanager and MacGillivray's Warbler.
So, it was an eight warbler weekend including Townsend's, Black-throated Gray, Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Orange-crowned, Wilson's, Nashville and Common Yellow-throat. Thank God that it is MAY!!!!!

Joshua Parrott
joshua.parrott at yahoo.com