Fellow Tweets,

Oct 6 found Bill and Nancy LaFramboise and myself undertaking my now
customary census on the Yakima Training Center. I can only do it once a week
due the constraints of apple harvest and shipping, but I eagerly look
forward to it! Along upper Cold Creek in the first hours after dawn, then to
the Cold Creek Divide where hawks and eagles glide over, thence on to
riparian at upper Selah Creek at Greeley Pond. Then a finale at Taylor Pond.

The dawn and early morning movement of passerines such as kinglets, robins,
thrushes and juncos was westward up Cold Creek as has been usual since early
September.Numbers were clearly less than a week ago, but impressive still.

Strangely, after 9 am, birds started flying east down valley. Kind of like
the tide turned! I offer no explanation...just the observation that from
0715 to 0830 the birds were all going west, thereafter a bunch moved the
opposite direction.

Today after about 10 am, a northerly flow aloft weatherwise prompted a
obvious movement of raptors, including the first Rough-legged Hawks of the
fall. Snow is not far away?

Here's the tally:

Mallard-3
Northern Harrier-32, Bill was surprised by the numbers of harriers
Sharp-shinned Hawk-12
Cooper's Hawk-3+
Red-tailed Hawk-40, mostly immatures
Rough-legged Hawk-2
Golden Eagle-5
American Kestrel-6
Prairie Falcon-1+
Gray Partridge-17
Chukar-2
Ring-necked Pheasant-2
Sage Grouse-2
Great Horned Owl-4
*Hairy Woodpecker-1*
"Yellow-shafted" Flicker-1
"Red-shafted" Flicker-11
Horned Lark-35, very noticeably declining week by week
Black-billed Magpie-9
Common Raven-54, "kettles" over Umptanum Ridge possibly signalling thermals
are perfect for hawks, as raptors moved in greatest numbers at this time
Red-breasted Nuthatch-3
Winter Wren-2
Golden-crowned Kinglet-156
Ruby-crowned Kinglet-331
Mountain Bluebird-2
Townsend's Solitaire-12
Hermit Thrush-14
American Robin-323
Varied Thrush-31
Water Pipit-1
European Starling-81
"Myrtle" Warbler-2
"Audubon's" Warbler-165
Spotted Towhee-5
Song Sparrow-3
Golden-crowned Sparrow-6
White-crowned Sparrow-12
Dark-eyed Junco-132
Red-winged Blackbird-40
Western Meadowlark-9
Cassin's Finch-11, eating blue elderberries
House Finch-9
Pine Siskin-84
American Goldfinch-6
Evening Grosbeak-2


That's the news from upper Cold Creek on the Yakima Training Center.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA