Today, 30 June, I assisted Bill Tweit on his Rimrock Lake breeding bird
census. Afterwards we went to the site where both Red-naped and Red-breasted
Sapsuckers were reported nesting in the same cottonwood snag 1,7 miles nw of
the Clear VCreek inlet bridge in western Yakima County (just east of White
Pass). The habitat here is Doug fir with much western hemlock, some silver
fir and vine maple, a community that seems alien to Red-naped Sapsuckers. We
did not observe any Red-naped Sapsuckers here, perhaps they had fledged and
left the area since the detailed study of them 2 weeks ago. We did see an
adult Red-breasted coming to feed a recently fledged juvenile bird that was
seemingly frozen on a branch at sapsucker wells. Bill said there was no
indication of a hybrid in the adult Red-breasted - in fact, it "seems"
"brighter" than coastal birds.

An hour later, on my own, I noted both Red-naped and Red-breasted Sapsuckers
at the Clear Lake bridge. And... juveniles of at least one of these species.
This is in the same "westside" habitat as the cottonwood snag site.

Oh...not to bring up Orange-crowned Warblers so soon after they just about
exhausted bandwidth on Tweeters - but a bird sang briefly from mountain
alders at the Clear Lake bridge, exactly where Washington's first confirmed
Black Phoebe was in May (1989?).

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA