Fellow Tweeters,

Saturday 20 July 2 Red Crossbills - possibly immatures - flew into black
cottonwoods along upper Hanson Creek on the Yakima Training Center 45 km
east of suitable habitat along the east slopes of the Cascades. My only
other records away from the mountains in summer include several on 5 and 6
July and again 3 and 4 August 1987 in Wapato. Is there a documented usual
post-fledging movement of Red Crossbills or is this a sign of a poor Cascade
seed crop? Red Crossbills are most likely over the lowlands in November and
early December in Yakima County, so these July and August records are
interesting.

Also, 2 Western Tanagers were in the same trees, Warbling Vireos and
Orange-crowned Warblers are in the lowlands and, of course, the July
movement of Rufous Hummingbirds, though it seems delayed this year. Things
are happening!

Noteworthy in the shrub-steppe zone was a chance find of a spring near the
height of land between Squaw and Hanson Creeks with a "weedy" zone below it
(several hectares) which was teeming with sparrows and larks, mostly
juveniles. Brewer's (90) and Vesper Sparrows (80+) plus Horned Larks (35+)
made up this contingent, clearly attracted to this wet zone. Several
censuses of typical breeding habitats for the above-mentioned species 20
July showed a low density of all passerines as compared to six weeks ago. As
on the Hanford Site, there appears to be a post-breeding movement from most
of the shrub-steppe zone for a number of passerines to local zones where
feeding opportunities might be more favorable. Typically, these are ravines
or borders of wet areas such as springs. Western Meadowlarks are in this
category too, as are Loggerhead Shrikes.

No Sage or Lartk Sparrows were noted at this wet area; these species were
still in their usual breeding habitats which are the lower, drier
communities of the shrub-steppe zone.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA