Yesterday, Scott Ray, Pat Little (The Nature Conservancy, Seattle) and I
located 3 singing Black-throated Sparrows on the very dry big
sagebrush/spiny hopsage flats on the west side of the Columbia River several
miles south of Sentinel Gap - 2 in Kittitas County and 1 in Yakima County.
Although these sites are difficult to access for the general public, as they
are on the Yakima Training Center, I very much suspect the traditional sites
on the west side of Wanapum State Park south of Vantage would have birds too
this year.

Note that this sparrows seemed to be completely absent from Washington in
1995 after its big push in 1994. It was even scarce in Oregon last year.
This is a species given to nomadism, depending on annual fluctuations in
weather (which doubtless leads to wide variations in insect and seed
production) in its desert environments. As with a large % of birds in
interior Australia, in North America the Black-throated, Cassin's and
Botteri's Sparrow may have adopted a similar propensity to shift their
ranges depending on annual (or longer) variations in conditions in their
habitat. I suspect the Grasshopper Sparrow fits into this category in WA
too, but I have not had enough years of observation to state this unequivocally.

We also observed scads of juvenile Sage, Brewer's and Vesper Sparrows,
indicating the first and major broods of shrub-steppe sparrows had fledged.
Sage Thrashers were seen in abundance too -about 100 in all, including a
high % of recently fledged young. Many had begun their usual post-breeding
shift from shrub-steppe to springs on the YTC where chokecheries, hawthorns,
mock orange and wild roses provide abundant berries or cover.

Also noteworthy was an immature Ferruginous Hawk kiting over the Saddle
Mountains, and juvenile Great Horned and Long-eared Owls.

A wonderful place...we all remarked how incredible the training center is in
terms of its diversity of habitats ,its beauty and its wildness
(notwithstanding the large-scale troop training with numerous encampments).

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA