Hi Tweeties;
On the way up Highway 17 about 15 miles south of Moses Lake (near
milepost 27) Kent Woodruff and I spied a beautiful white-headed hawk
on a nearby fencepost (on Thursday, May 15). We were looking for
Ferruginous Hawks and took it to be one until it flew, at which point the
white butt patch proved it to be a Rough-legged. There are no records in
'Birds of Okanogan' for this species by the third week of May- they all migrate
up to the tundra to breed. It flew with a list to one side, and appears to be
injured. Kent's comment was, "That's the only Rough-legged Hawk in
the state of Washington right now."

We had a combined migratory bird count, 'medium-sized day' and
birdathon (to raise money for Audubon's enviro ed program) on Sunday
(yes, Sunday, were always a little out of step here in the Methow).
116 species were counted. High points included a Prairie
Falcon screaming off of her nest to strafe a passing Golden Eagle,
the sighting of at least 8 Golden Eagles (a number of different
plumage phases assured different birds), a Solitary Sandpiper, and
four Chats honking it up on Frost Lane up Twisp River.

Dana Visalli