Tweets,

Denny Granstrand, Hal Opperman and I birded from Ellensburg south around
Umtanum Ridge on the Umtanum Rd. to the Wenas Campground, then from there
southeast to Selah. From Selah, we returned to Ellensburg via the Yakima
Canyon, an easy 3/4 day loop.

These are some of the highlights (the listings below roughly following our
route) :

-Mountain and Western Bluebirds on the Yakima Valley Audubon Societies
bluebird trail on Umtanum Rd. I always forget how exquisite these creatures
are!

-Singing Sage Thrashers and Vesper Sparrows on the bitterbrush/sagebrush on
the
Umtanum Road.

-Nuthatches of all three species were common in the ponderosa pines around
Ellensburg Pass,
including White-breasted nesting in a bluebird box.

-Red-naped Sapsucker-1 on a healthy ponderosa pine in the Wenas Campground,
another along Maloy Rd., again on healthy pines.

-Steller's Jays were thick on Hog Ranch Rd. above the Wenas Campground. How
many? Dunno, but between 20 and 50! Mostly calling at the top of their
lungs. Out of my experience, this congregation of Steller's. Migration?
Weird.

-Townsend's Solitaires, a pair under a roadcut (where they're thinking of
nesting?) about 1.5 miles north of the Wenas Campground on the North Wenas
Road.

-Five White-headed Woodpeckers on Maloy Rd. (about 1.5 miles west of the
3-way junction at the end of the pavement on Wenas Rd., where Audubon Rd.
starts to the Wenas Campground). We had 4 White-headed Woodpeckers in view
at one time, with a fifth calling in the distance. The pines on the south
side of Maloy Rd. at this point are where the woodpeckers were. They
appeared to be engaged in pair or territory formation. All were calling
excitedly, and chasing one another around the woods. Quite a spectacle!

-Cassin's Finches everywhere! The pine woods on Maloy Rd. were literally
filled with Cassin's Finches, certainly more than I'd ever seen before in
one place. At one time, I believe we were hearing or seeing 50+ birds.
Ponderosa pines at every stop in our loop had Cassin's. Were we witnessing
migration of these finches?, None of us have encountered this density of
Cassin's Finches on territory.

-Purple Finch-at least 3 singing males in the aspen/farmland edge on Maloy
Rd., .5 mile west of the Audubon Rd. junction. This species is local in
eastern Washington, but this agricultural edge habitat is the one they
favor east of the crest.

-Golden Eagles-a pair were soaring north of Wenas Lake over the summit of
Umtanum Ridge. Great views of these adult eagles diving and cartwheeling.
We saw another adult eagle in the south part of the Yakima Canyon; had
great views as it quartered along the precipitous slopes, landing, then
flying again. What an incredible bird!

-Prairie Falcon-a bird was screaming about cliffs in the northern part of
the Yakima Canyon.

All tallied, we saw about 65 species. Migrants such as flycatchers (except
Say's Phoebe), vireos and warblers were absent, as evidently it's still too
early for these migrants. I was surprised, however, to not even note a
kinglet or White-crowned Sparrow. The upper air flow, in general, these
past two weeks, has been from the northwest or west; this has probably not
prompted any major push of migrants into the region east of the Cascade
crest. As further evidence of this, we saw only one Violet-green Swallow.
What appeared to be an unusually early spring in the making a month ago
appears to have fizzled. In fact, growing units are now behind (not much,
but clearly not ahead) the 40-year average in Yakima.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA
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