Subject: Wenas 12 April -Reply
Date: Apr 14 13:48:26 1998
From: CHRIS CHAPPELL - cbmm490 at gwgate.wadnr.gov


Andy,
Your description of Cassin's Finches reminds me of an
experience I had a few years ago. It was March in the
Wenatchee Mountains north of Ellensburg and I was skiing,
still a few feet of snow on the ground there at the time.
Cassin's were surprisingly numerous and very vocal,
seemingly a greater density and less territoriality than during
breeding season. There was considerable singing but also
lots of flying about.

Chris Chappell
Olympia, WA
chris.chappell at wadnr.gov

>>> "Andy Stepniewski" <steppie at wolfenet.com> 04/13/98
07:33pm >>>
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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