Subject: [Tweeters] slow day Sibley Pass
Date: Sep 15 21:33:28 2012
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Tweeters,
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Today (15 September 2012) I hiked up to Sibley Pass, off Cascade River Road (Skagit County). It was the slowest day of birding I've ever had up there. The only raptors I saw were two probable Red-tails about three or four miles to the NW--even with the scope that I'd lugged up there,??I could not identify them. Despite a forecast for highs in the mid-sixties, it was brutally hot on the way up, probably close to ninety. I found no warblers and?no vireos, and the only sparrows in the meadows were White-crowned Sparrows. At the pass itself, it was very, very quiet, with just a few American Pipits and Vaux's Swifts flying by, and four Chestnut-backed Chickadees--although it was refreshingly cool up there. This was the?first time I'd ever been?to Sibley Pass?in September and missed seeing a Golden Eagle. Far to the east I could see a nasty-looking cloud that was probably made of smoke from the fires in Eastern Washington. The air all around was quite
hazy.
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The one bright spot was on the way up, when I relocated the Lewis's Woodpecker in the fields west of Marblemount, which Ryan Merrill had seen recently. It was perched on a ruined barn to the north of the?highway.
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Also on the way up, I visited Marblemount Boat Launch, which was pretty quiet in the morning, although I did see a Warbling Vireo, a Black-throated Grey Warbler, and a few other birds.
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An evening visit to Howard Miller Steelhead Park was a waste of time--there were scads of dog-walkers on the trail, and hardly any birds.
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Yours truly,
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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!"