Howdy Tweeters;

I just returned from a visit home to Penticton, B.C. and saw some great
birds. My mother's house looks down on a gully above Skaha Lake with a
pine snag and resident Lewis's Woodpecker. It was fun watching him/her for
a week. They are very good at fly-catching something I haven't seen them do
before. I also got out one day to snoop around some local spots. I ran
into what I suspect were migrating flocks of Cedar Waxwings (about 20),
Yellow Warblers (4), Lewis's Woodpeckers (5) and Black-headed Grosbeaks (3)
above Vaseaux Lake. It was great to see that many Lewis's in one spot as
they are not always the easiest birds to find. White Lake (alkali) usually
dry this time of year actually had alot of water and about 12 Phalaropes.
I think they were Red-necked and not Wilson's but they were at the limit
my scopes capability on a cloudy day. The stand of popular nearby also
seemed full of small passerines. I saw a large flock of American Goldfinch
(20 or so) and heard Western Wood Pewees everywhere.

Has anyone seen Spotted Sandpipers feeding in the post-rain standing water
at the sides of highways? I saw two birds at different spots flush from
the highway edge that were not Snipe and seemed to look right for Spotted
Sandpipers.

Tracee Geernaert
tracee at iphc.washington.edu