Subject: WA Route 20 trip
Date: Jul 30 02:30:34 1997
From: JEDER1 at aol.com - JEDER1 at aol.com


Hi Tweeters!

What a perfectly beautiful weekend we had traveling across Route 20 from
Tonasket, with a stop at Bonaparte Lake (DeLorme 115 B8), on to Sherman
Creek, and then heading south to stay at the Log Cabin Resort (very basic and
rustic cabins) on South Twin Lake. (DeLorme 103 B6)

Route 20 goes through the 1988 White Mountain Fire area and the US forest
Service has put up a very interesting display about this....very educational!
Bonaparte Lake is a small, no wake lake that is beautiful and great for
canoeing or rowing. It also has a great campgound. The Twin Lakes are
absolute jewels - big, forested, lots of secluded areas and habitats. Boats
with 5 HP motors can be rented and there were no hot shot boaters, skiers,
etc. Fishing was OK, but birding was so much better we soon didn't even
pretend to fish.

Here are the birds we saw. The most interesting (to us) are mentioned first.

Common Loon - on Twin Lakes North and on Twin Lake South we saw a family of
loons. We also saw a loon family on Bonaparte Lake. (I remember someone on
Tweeters is wanting this loon nesting information.) On the Columbia River
near Chelan we saw a single loon.

Red-necked Grebe - we were treated to quite a special event on Twin Lake
South watching the many grebes. One of the females had babies on her back
and the male would dive and then come feed the babies resting on her back!

Common Nighthawk - there were many flying over the lake and one male was
courting a female by diving and making a booming noise through the feathers.
It would echo all over the lake. It was a great aerial display!

Red-Tailed Hawks - we came upon a nest, heard the young, and then watched as
the parents left the nest and gave us another great aerial display diving and
screeming at each other before soaring off.

Brown Creeper - a new bird to our list
Williamson's Sapsucker
Pine Siskin - eating the blossoms? from a flowering tree right ay the lake's
edge
Northern Flicker
Eastern Kingbird
Belted Kingfisher - a family of 6
Bald Eagle
Osprey
Spotted Sandpiper - new to our list finally!
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
American Robin
Common Goldeneye - all over with many, many little ones
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow - with four tiny babies peaking out of the nest over the
door
Cliff Swallow
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Song Sparrow
Common Yellowthroat
Hummingbird - ?????couldn't find it again to ID the species
Dark-eyed Junco
Mallard - with young
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-winged Blackbird
Ruffed Grouse - it refused to get out of the road and we walked right around
it
Marsh Wren
Hermit Thrush - ?????a mystery bird and not real sure of the ID
Wilson's Warbler
Gadwall - with babies
Western Kingbird
Western Bluebird - in a natural cavity of a burned out tree in the fire area
Mourning Dove
Western wood Peewee
Kestral
House Sparrow
Black-billed Magpie

Bruce
Yakima, WA