Dear Tweeters,
Mike Nelson is a birder who is not on Tweeters; Mike suggested that I let my fellow Tweeters know that he saw "the" Skagit Gyrfalcon today, 1-22-2018. I put the "the" in quotation marks because it appears that there are actually two Gyrfalcons appearing in Skagit County this winter. Wow, I got to write the word the two times in a row in the same sentence, and it isn't a mistake!
Anyway, Mike saw the bird north of the "Talking Field" gravel lot off McLean Road, between Best Road and LaConner-Whitney Road, between 1615 and 1630 this evening. That is about the same time of day when I saw one recently, not far from there, along Downey Road. Mike photographed the Gyrfalcon in a tree north of McLean Road. Mike has pointed out that there is ample room to pull one's car off by the "Talking Field" lot, even though the lot is gated off right now.
Good luck to anyone trying to track this bird down--it is almost as tricky as this winter's Skagit County Great Egret, which appears to follow a most labyrinthine algorithm in deciding which ditch to frequent.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch

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