Dear Tweeters,
This morning, Friday the 25th, it was very windy and rainy in western Skagit County. I ran into Mike Nelson at Fir Island Farm Reserve in a near gale, with driving rain. Mike saw some Western Meadowlarks, and we saw a late Northern Rough-winged Swallow, but conditions were horrid. We decided to go to the Fir Island Game Range, where there would be some cover from the wind.
Around 1330, the weather improved dramatically. After yet another bootless search for Stilt Sandpipers, we walked out beyond the dike junction, past the little camouflage-painted blind. That is not the skull-cracking blind with the absurdly low ceiling and yellow concussion-warning paint, but the smaller blind south of there. 
A bit beyond that blind, at about 1355, we saw an odd passerine fly in from the marsh to the southwest. It landed in a small shrub in the marsh, just across the slough. It was not far off, but perversely chose to remain behind a slender stem and out of sight.
I was too lazy to walk southwards to get a view of the bird. Mike took that little extra effort, and soon started acting the way birders do when they see something good! 
Soon the bird flew to another small shrub or tree along the dike, closer to us, and gave us a good view for a few minutes more. We studied it in our scopes. Mike's camera battery had already died; I decided to study the bird in the scope first, before trying for a photo. By the time I took out my camera, a Song Sparrow had chased off the bird, which we realized was a LARK BUNTING! It was presumably either a female or an immature--it showed no black in the plumage.
I put a piece of colorful ribbon by the shrub where the bird had perched. Then Mike and I spent close to three more hours out there, looking high and low, and playing Lark Bunting tapes, to no avail.
Other fun sightings at the Game Range included three early SNOW GEESE, a SORA that gave us good views, and an American Bittern flying over the marsh at the extreme west end of the new dike. We also saw lots of Greater White-fronted Geese and Cackling Geese, with just a few Canada Geese.
Tomorrow will be, I believe, the youth Canada Goose hunt, so it might be difficult birding out there on Fir Island.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
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