Dear Tweeters,
After hearing that Bill Tweit and Whittier Johnson had found some good birds yesterday on the Nookachamps Basin, I decided to try for them today, 4 December 2016.
The AMERICAN TREE SPARROW was easy to find in the rosebushes just west of the hunting sign at Lindegren Road (or however that road is spelled). Also present were a Northern Shrike and various waterfowl, including my first-ever December CINNAMON TEAL in Skagit County.
The Francis Road RUSTY BLACKBIRD, five minutes from Lindegren Road, took me two trips to locate. It is best viewed from a tiny triangle of roads at the corner, by a bovine farm, at the fourth 90-degree bend (counting from Highway Nine). The presence of small raptors and shotgun-shooting hunters in the area made things interesting. Ultimately, it was a shotgun blast that scared the Brewer's Blackbird flock over to the roadside, enabling me and another birder to view the Rusty.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch