On Saturday, Jan. 31, 1998, I had the chance to do a little bit of
birding before a visiting my in-laws in Irrigon, Oregon. James Holloway (my
significant other) and I visited several spots in Walla Walla County,
Washington.
The weather was less than cooperative. When we left Pullman, it was
sunny and warm. But as we got near the Tri-Cities, it became very foggy,
cold and windy.
The first stop was the slough behind Mc Nary National Wildlife
Refuge Headquarters. There was the usual ducks with Northern Shovelers
being the most common. Other duck species, in no particular order were
Mallards, Canvasbacks, Redheads, Lesser Scaup, Buffleheads, Common
Goldeneye, Common Merganser. There was a Pied-billed Grebe diving as well.
Canada Geese were everywhere.
The best show was put on by an adult Bald Eagle. Just as we parked
the car, the eagle flew low over the slough, making the waterfowl very
nervous. Then it landed in a tree less than twenty yards from our car. A
few minutes later, it repeated the buzz over the slough and returned to the
tree. It repeated this behavior several times. I assume it was checking
out the ducks to see if there were any wounded ones. Another eagle, this
one an immature, make the Canada Geese in the nearby fields fly into the
air. There were several hundred geese flying and honking in the air around
us. What an amazing sound! The immature continued past our car and was
ignored by the adult eagle. The adult eagle continued harassing the
waterfowl until someone came out of the headquarters to dump some trash.
We past up the famous "Wallula Poop Piles" because there were no
gulls to be seen.
Our only other stop was Madame Dorian Park. We found the Harris'
Sparrows (2) and the White-throated Sparrow (1) among the massive flock of
White-crowned Sparrows feeding on some seed left there (I assume by the Mike
and MeriLynn Denny). Three Double-crested Cormorants flew over the park (my
first for the year).
I didn't bird the Walla Walla River Delta due to the fog. When we
drove over the bridge to turn into Madam Dorian Park, I could barely make up
shapes on the delta. There were lots of birds out there but I couldn't
identify them in the fog.
All of these locations are along U.S. 12 between Pasco (where you
exit 395 to get to 12) and the intersection with WA 730 (which takes you to
Umatilla Oregon along the Columbia).
We did a little birding Sunday morning (while the in-laws were in
church) in Morrow and Umatilla Counties. We didn't see very much. We did
stop at McNary Dam but there were only a few gulls too far away to identify.
The morning was very cold and foggy and there wasn't very many birds out
except the typical robins, flickers, crows and magpies.

Deb Beutler
Department of Zoology
P.O. Box 644236
Washington State Univerisity
Pullman, Whitman Co., WA
dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu