Dear Tweeters,
Today (the tenth of August) Mrs. Bletsch and I were just entering the gates of the Skagit County Fairgrounds, when my phone rang. It was Marv Breece. I explained to Mrs. Bletsch that a couple of HUDSONIAN GODWITs would be worth any number of blue ribbons, so we hightailed it down to Fir Island.
When we got to Hayton Reserve, there were already half a dozen or more birders looking at the two Hudsonian Godwits. We got reasonably good looks at them for perhaps twenty minutes, until they flew to the east, possibly toward the Game Range. The black underwing coverts and the white tails with broad black terminal bands were striking when the birds flew off.
There was a golden plover there that the consensus called an American. I must admit that I glanced at it a bit, but did not study it all that carefully. Bob Kuntz, who came by in time to see the godwits, later phoned me and suggested that the bird was more likely a Pacific Golden Plover; he had studied the bird more carefully than I did, so I will defer to Bob. Perhaps some of the other birders who were there might like to weigh in on that. Either way, a golden plover is a very good bird in Skagit, although not a match for the second-ever HUGO in the county.
Mrs. Bletsch and I bid adieu to the party of birders, and returned to the parking lot to go back to the fair, when Marv started calling me. WILLET! I ran back up to the dike and got to see the Willet, only my third ever in Skagit. I think there are fewer than ten records all time for this species in the county. 
At this point, I jokingly said to the other birders that I was leaving, so that they could find another rarity, such as a Curlew Sandpiper, and so Mrs. Bletsch and I repaired to the car. As we were crossing the parking area, Marv called again. RED-NECKED PHALAROPES! Well, that's a very good bird indeed!
I got my aerobic exercise regimen taken care of for the day when I ran once again up to the dike, just in time to see the two phalaropes doing what Mrs. Bletsch once called their "Viking Ship" act on the water.
When we got back to the car for the third time, Marv started yelling again. What would it be this time?
"Gary, Gary, Mallards!"
We decided we'd already seen Mallards for the day, and went to the fair. We got to see a Harris's Hawk and a Eurasian Eagle Owl there, but they didn't count, because they met only one of the three ABA listing criteria: "alive, wild, and unrestrained." 
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch

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