Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 21:47:32 -0700
From: Diann MacRae <tvulture at mail1.halcyon.com>

Hi, Tweets

This is a very short and not very descriptive report of a two-day trip Ann
van der Geld and I just made to the Waterville Plateau and returning home
via Moses Coulee and Dodson Road.

Monday: over Steven's Pass, up SR2 to the Waterville Plateau, then several
hours spent on the many *primitive roads* in the area, a side trip to Sun
Lakes, then to Coulee City for the night. Seen: 7 northern harriers (5
females, 2 males), 2 osprey, 2 redtails, 4 common mergansers (Tumwater
canyon), 2 adult bald eagles (flying up the Columbia just south of Orono),
4 American kestrels, American goldfinches, horned larks, great horned owl
w/2 or more chicks (Heritage Rd), 31 tundra swans in a wet field north of
Atkins Lakes, and at Atkins Lake, canvasbacks, pintails, lesser scaup,
bufflehead, mallards, Canada geese, shovelers, and 6 more tundra swans.

Tuesday: more primitive roads on the way over to Moses Coulee, through the
Coulee to Douglas Creek and back (for golden eagles), to Ephrata and onto
Dodson Road, then onto Frenchman Hills Road, Adams Road to I-90 and back to
Seattle.

On the Waterville Plateau, 2 loggerhead shrikes, 2 roughlegs, 6 northern
harriers (5 males, 1 female), 6 redtails, 4 mountain bluebirds, barn
swallow, canyon wrens (in the coulee), 1 eastern kingbird (!), marmot on
roof of deserted building, and horned larks.

Dodson Road: 1 Swainson's hawk (first of the season I've seen), 1 redtail,
great horned owl w/2 chicks in nest, long-billed curlews flying and
calling, mourning dove, great blue heron, probable egret, ring-necked
pheasants, American coot, bufflehead, redhead, lesser scaup, ring-necked
duck, ruddy duck, and mallard.

Wetlands at intersection of Dodson and Frenchman's Hill Roads: 2 cinnamon
teal, mallards, green-winged teal, pintail, redhead, gadwall, shoveler,
American wigeon, killdeer, and 2 black-necked stilts (first we've seen this
year).

Adams Road: several hundred Canada geese and two tundra swans at one small
wetland.

I-90 to home: 1 male northern harrier, 2 roughlegs, 1 osprey (!?) after
looking at all of the nests on I-90, and, finally, to make the day
complete, near Cle Elum, 1 TURKEY VULTURE!!!

Saw ravens both days on nests, on utility poles, in fields, displaying in
flight, and just standing around. Lots of redtails in nests (none of these
counted in totals). Snowing on Snoqualmie Pass, otherwise great weather.

Best regards,

Diann MacRae
Bothell
tvulture at halcyon.com