Hi Tweeters!

I took some Oregon birders to the Wenas area today (Hardy Canyon, Sheep
Company Road, the campground, and Wenas Lake) and had a great day with even a
couple of surprises! We saw all the "normals" plus all the "usuals" for this
time of year: lazuli buntings, yellow-breasted chats, white-headed
woodpeckers, red crossbills, western and mountain bluebirds, northern
orioles, western wood peewees, a warbling vireo, a burrowing owl, tanagers, a
gray flycatcher, ??other flycatchers??, meadowlarks, a goldfinch, cassin's
finches, red-tailed hawks, kestrals, a rufuos hummingbird, violet-green
swallows, black-headed grosbeaks, spotted towhees, a vesper sparrow, house
wrens, juncos, and chipping sparrows.


The two surprises came as we were leaving about 4:00. First, as we rounded a
corner about two miles out of the campground during the woods part of the
drive, we spotted a grouse walking across the road. It feined an injury on
the side of the road and we got out to look at it closer. After some time it
moved, and out scurried 6 little balls of yellow fluff each about an inch in
diameter. After much discussion and comparing of bird books, we all agreed
it was female ruffed grouse as evidenced by the fanned tail with a dark tail
band, blacks ruffs below the sides of the neck, and a small crest. The
second surprise was waiting for us near the end of the campground road...a
black and white bird was sitting on the top of a sagebrush only a few feet
from the car windows. Again a unanimous and uncontested identification of a
eastern kingbird from all of us. Our day was made!!

Bruce Eder
Yakima, WA