Dear Tweeters,
There was a Harris's Sparrow on Cockreham Island today, February 3. It was easy to view from the roadside at the pond that I call the west pond. This is the only pond left on the island, since the new blueberry farm owner decided to drain and fill the one I used to call the south pond. The west pond is right on the west side of Cockreham Island Road, on the west side of the island, near a gated dirt road that heads west toward the river. The Harris's was in a brushy patch along the pond. This patch has typically harbored some Zonotrichias in winter, although the habitat was reduced to a tiny remnant by the above-mentioned monoculture operation. I noticed the bird just a few seconds after I started pishing, even though I was birding from inside the car in a pouring-down rain.
Cockreham Island is between Lyman and Hamilton, north of the Skagit River, a bit east of the middle upper lower middle upper part of the western lower upper middle Skagit Valley.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch