Sunday October 27th I censused upper Cold and Selah Creeks on the southern
Yakima Training Center and adjacent Umptanum Ridge with Ike Eisenhart. It is
always a pleasure to bird with Ike for he has a superb instinct for locating
owls which I've never quite gotton.

In the tall peachleaf willows along uppermost Cold Creek, we had just
watched a gorgeous male Pine Grosbeak flying east to west up Cold Creek when
Ike sauntered off into the tall willows while I maintained a watch on
passerines migrating. A few moments later he quietly called out "I have a
Barred Owl!" A Barred Owl out here?! Lowland records from the east base of
the Cascades are known for Yakima County, but upper Cold Creek is far
removed from any forest. This bird had to really cross miles of shrub-steppe
to get to this spot.

Both the Pine Grosbeak and Barred Owl, of course, were new birds for the
training center.

Finches were noteworthy this morning: 2 Purples, 1 Cassin's, 20 Pine Siskins
and 38 goldfinches all flying east to west as is usual here. Later we
observed a lone Gray-crowned Rosy Finch atop Umtanum Ridge.

A short time later in a hawthorn thicket, Ike located a Long-eared Owl which
was being aggressively mobbed by a Northern Shrike. In a nearby aspen glade,
he found 8 more Long-eared Owls! And, later at Taylor Pond, 5 more
Long-ears! Great Horned Owls were, as usual, easy to find, as were 4-5
Short-eared Owls over the grasslands at dusk.

The diurnal raptor show is diminishing, especially Accipiters; we found but
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk. But the afternoon flight of raptors is still a treat
and impressive numbers of birds of prey were found.

The tally:

Mallard-3
Northern Harrier-33
Sharp-shinned Hawk-1
Red-tailed Hawk-10,, only in the wooded valleys.
Rough-legged Hawk-18, mainly on grass-covered ridges.
Golden Eagle-1 adult streaking southeastward...beautiful!
American Kestrel-2
Merlin-1, going like a bullet south from Umtanum Ridge.
Gray Partridge-10
Sage Grouse-1
Great Horned Owl-2
Barred Owl-1
Long-eared Owl-14
Short-eared Owl-5
Downy Woodpecker-1
Hairy Woodpecker-1
N. (Red-shafted) Flicker-2
Horned Lark-36
Black-billed Magpie-13
Common Raven-22
Red-breasted Nuthatch-1
Winter Wren-3
Golden-crowned Kinglet-18
Ruby-crowned Kinglet-5
Mountain Bluebird-1
Townsend's Solitaire-1
Hermit Thrush-1
American Robin-19
Varied Thrush-21
Northern Shrike-6
European Starling-40
Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler-3
Song Sparrow-3
White-crowned Sparrow-2
Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco-14
Lapland Longspur-3
Red-winged Blackbird-1
Western Meadowlark-1
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch-1
Pine Grosbeak-1
Purple Finch-2
Cassin's Finch-1
House Finch-14
Pine Siskin-20
American Goldfinch-38


Andy Stepniewki
Wapato WA