Hi Gary and Tweeters,

The Swamp Sparrow was the highlight bird of a trip to Skagit County that Scott Ramos, Jen Kunitsugu, and Matt Jensen made on Saturday 11/23.? I have updated my eBird checklist to include the specific location we saw it, which you can find at the following link if you scroll down to that species:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15750052

Other than that, our main highlight was nice diversity, with a total of 90 species seen in the county, and high numbers of some species:
- Northern Pintail - hundreds total at many lowland spots including March Point
- Long-tailed Duck - Samish Island (beach off Wharf Rd)
- Black Oystercatcher - flock of up to 18 that flew around and way up in the air at Rosario Head
- Marbled Murrelet - we estimated at least 14 at Rosario Head
- Short-eared Owl - reliably showing a little before sunset at the West 90
- Anna's Hummingbird - 2 at Rosario Head (our only other Skagit Co. code "3" besides the Swamp Sparrow)
- Northern Shrike - at both the Skagit Game Range and Hayton Preserve
- American Pipit - we estimated probably 200 in the fields surrounding Wylie and Mann Rd intersection, also shorebird including Least Sandpiper and Killdeer, but no luck with golden-plovers.
- Brown-headed Cowbird - the "rarest" icterid we could find in the flock at Wylie and Mann Rd.

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA