Mea and I spent the weekend doing a couple of atlas blocks
in NE Chelan County (party hours = 24; party miles = 26;
miles by car = 4; miles on foot = 22; miles by boat = 0;
total species ca. 41).

We arrived at Atkinson Flat campground Friday evening.
Spent Saturday am walking various trails near the Chiwawa
River, pm walking FS 62 (Chiwawa R. Rd) north of Atkinson
Flat (the road is closed here because of washouts) up
toward Phelps Creek. Highlights were 2 Harlequin Ducks in
the river south of Nineteen Mile campground and a pair of
Three-toed Woodpeckers working side-by-side on a large
spruce. Lots of passerines busy gathering bugs for their
broods, including some Yellow Warblers right next to our
tent that were still covered in dark gray down. Other
warblers included MacGillivray's, Townsend's, Audubon's,
and Wilson's. Empidonax flycatchers were out in force in
the heat of the day, but most remained unidentified as they
were not vocal. Those that did call got tagged as Dusky,
Hammond's, and Pacific Slope.

Sunday am we headed up the trail to Schaefer Lake, in the
Glacier Peak Wilderness. A log jam makes a nice bridge
across the Chiwawa River. Lots of Olive-sided Flycatchers
calling along the trail, and the occasional Western Tanager
or Townsend's Warbler competed with omnipresent wildflowers
for visual attention. The highlights for Sunday were at the
top of the trail at Schaefer Lake, 5100 ft. The meadows here
were full of Dodecatheon. We located an adult Osprey right
off the bat, but despite spending two hours here never saw more
than one. Poking around the edges of the Lake turned up the
requisite Spotted Sandpiper, but we were a little surprised by
another shorebird that was hanging out in a waterlogged meadow:
a Solitary Sandpiper. Presumably this bird is a southbound
migrant and did not breed here, but who knows? We did not
remember to look in the trees for other Solitaries, however.

David Wright
Seattle, WA
dwright at u.washington.edu