Hi all-
Follow-ups on some sightings reported earlier on Tweeters:

This morning, in the drizzle, I followed Gary Bletsch's good directions and hiked up Frailey Mtn. off Deer Creek Rd. in Skagit County. Once up near the end of the road, I had nice scope view looks at several White-winged Crossbills - 5 seen well, and flock that sounded like White-winged's zoomed by once -; No luck on the Pine Grosbeaks also reported up there. The hike is all on solid logging road, but it is a 2 1/2 mi uphill hike -; for me, a good bit of huffing & puffing.
It was good consolation for minimal success with the King county WW Crossbills the day before - Saturday I spent several hours up Middle Fork Snoq. River where only once or twice did I hear WWCR - no views -; weekend crowds on that road were pretty extreme, so maybe a weekday would allow better finding.

After the Skagit goodness, I heard about Alex Sowers & Louis Kreemer's find of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on 19th St. in Fall City - so I headed there. The sapsucker was present as I arrived around 12:30 - by 12:45, it flew off -; took until after 3:00 for it to reappear. Nevertheless when we relocated it it was back in the apple trees along the first part of 19th. The trees are blocked from close view by a hedge of blackberries. But by looking from the far edges, you can get decent views of the apple trees and trunks. The sapsucker spent some time feeding on the apples themselves, and some time sitting low on the trunks of the apple trees. Seems like there's plenty of reason for the Sapsucker to stick around.

A good day -

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA