Today 6 April, I led the annual Yakima Audubon Sandhill Crane spectacular.
We had a wonderful day - birding from Kittitas to the Waterville Plateau via
the Coulee Lakes. Some highlights:

-Common Loon- 20 breeding plumaged beauties on Blue Lake, a large # for
spring in eastern WA.
-Black-crowned Night-Heron-1, Bob Mittelstaedt rescued 1 that somehow got
caught in a completely netted fish pen on the Dry Falls Dam. Beyond us how
it got inside! An early record for so far north in eastern WA.
-Tundra Swan-15 on Atkins Lake. Not unusual, but always a treat!
-Gr. White-fronted Goose-23 on Atkins Lake
-Lesser Scaup were everywhere, including 500+ on Coulee Lakes, 1100+ on
Atkins + nearby Lakes on the Waterville Plateau.
-Red-breasted Merganser-1 on Blue Lake
-Ruddy Duck-1500 on Soap and Lenore Lakes
-550 Sandhill Cranes on Stallard Lake north of St Andrews on the Waterville
Plateau. We also saw flocks flying high going north over Sun Lakes State Park
-Black-necked Stilt-1 on Stallard Lake on the Waterville Plateau. My 1st
record for the plateau. This species is very rare this far north in WA.
Today has been the 2nd day of warm southerly winds.
-American Avocet-5 on Stallard Lake
-Lapland Longspur-1 near Atkins Lake on the Waterville Plateau.

Total of 79 species including 22 waterfowl. About 11,000 individuals.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA