Subject: [Tweeters] thanks for Thick-billed RFI; Skagit birds
Date: Feb 9 20:11:40 2013
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Tweeters,
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Thanks to all the many Tweeters who got me squared away on the Thick-billed Murre info. Bob Kuntz and I will try tomorrow for this bird. With luck., we will see both a Bruennich's Guillemot and a Thick-billed Murre in?the same?scope view.
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I thought I'd mention two good birds I saw today in Skagit County. At Jensen Access was a Pacific Golden Plover, presumably the same bird seen yestday by Terry Mceneaney (spelling?). Also on Fir Island was a White-fronted Goose with the Snow Geese, on?Wylie Road, along with an?impressive caravan of nature-watchers, photographers, and perhaps a few birders, many of whom were driving on the wrong side of the road.
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On the Samish Flats, I saw a Gyrfalcon. This bird was making broad, dramatic circles around the west end of Darcy Road. At one point it flew straight up at a circling Buteo, but gave up as the buzzard slowly thermaled its way higher and higher, not using up all the fuel required by Falconiform afterburners.
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I had tried all morning for?the Gyrfalcon?on Fir Island, where I also missed the Rusty Blackbird and the Snowy Owl.
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Yours truly,

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!"