Subject: 19 shorebirds in E. Wash.
Date: Aug 22 21:26:30 1998
From: osprey at nwinfo.net - osprey at nwinfo.net


Tweeters,

I made a rush tour of some of the good shorebirds spots in Eastern
Washington, leaving Yakima at 4:00 p.m. Friday and returning at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday. Stops Friday evening at: Yakima River delta in Richland, the
McNary Pool ponds along Hwy. 12 south of Pasco, the Iowa Beef ponds near
Wallula and a quick glance at the Walla Walla delta. Saturday stops
included the last three above, Lake Kahlotus, Scooteney Resevoir southeast
of Othello, the potato ponds near Othello, quick stops through the Columbia
NWR, Dodson Road and the heron rookery west of Moses Lake. 433 total miles.

I found nineteen species of shorebirds with the only unusual one being one
Stilt Sandpiper. Many of the spots listed above were pretty quiet including
the Walla Walla delta which is probably the best shorebird area in Eastern
Washington. Surprises were a small pond along the Dodd-Iowa Beef Road near
Wallula which had seven species including the Stilt Sandpiper on it and a
small pond along Frenchman Hills Road just west of Dodson Road. This is the
pond on which Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets were first found to
be nesting in Washington. It had ten species of shorebirds on it today
including Baird's, Pectoral and Solitary Sandpipers.

Here is the shorebird list:

Semipalmated Plover - Walla Walla delta
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper - Dodd-Iowa Beef Road
Spotted Sandpiper
Sanderling - Walla Walla delta
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper - Iowa Beef ponds and Frenchman Hill Road
Pectoral Sandpiper - Walla Walla delta and Frenchman Hill Road
Stilt Sandpiper - Dodd-Iowa Beef Road
Short-billed Dowitcher - Yakima River delta
Long-billed Dowitcher - Yakima delta, Dodd-Iowa Beef Road
Common Snipe
Wilson's Phalarope - Iowa Beef ponds and Othello potato ponds
Red-necked Phalarope - same

Other sightings of note:

Franklin's Gull - the McNary Pool ponds
Great Egret - along Dodson Road and the heron rookery
White Pelican - Walla Walla and Yakima river deltas and the heron rookery
Forster's Tern - McNary Pool ponds

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA

osprey at nwinfo dot net