This past weekend, Len Steiner, Joyce Meyer, my wife Bev, and I birder in E.
Wash. It was a cloudy day with temp in high 30's. We started at Wenatchee,
went up east side of Columbia R. to Chelan Falls and Chelan, then up to
Pateros, and up the Methow to Winthrop and back to Twisp where we stayed
overnight. It rained most of the night in Twisp - thankful it wasn't snow.
Sun. morning we went back down the Methow. It rained until we got close to
Columbia R. We went upriver to Brewster, hwy 173 to Bridgeport, hwy 17 south
to hwy 172, west on 172 thru Mansfield and down to hwy 2 thru Waterville and
back to Columbia R. There was very little snow on the plateau and many ponds
were not iced over. Very different from same time last year when there was a
lot of snow, everything was frozen and a lot of deer were down ot Methow
Valley to feed in farm fields.

I recorded species counts for all raptors and some of other species, but not
for the more common birds. On Sat. we had 39 species including:

Pied-billed, Horned and Western Grebe
Canvasback
Common Goldeneye
35 Bald Eagle - 22 adult and 13 imm.
2 Cooper's Hawk
7 Red-tailed Hawk
1 American Kestrel
1 Prairie Falcon
California Quail
2 Belted Kingfisher - both male
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Townsend's Solitaire
1 Loggerhead Shrike
2 Cassin's Finch

On Sunday, we 41 total species, 15 new species for a trip total of 54.

1 Common Loon
16 Trumpeter Swan - in large pond no. of Withrow
Northern Pintail
4 Redhead duck in Methow R. just upstream from Columbia R.
15 Bald Eagle - 10 adult and 5 imm.
1 No. Harrier
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
18 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Golden Eagle - hwy 17 so. of Bridgeport, it swooped down and apparently got
some prey at a marshy wetland that had a lot of Red-winged Blackbird.
1 American Kestrel
1 Mourning Dove
1 Great Horned Owl - in grove of trees at abandoned buildings east of
Mansfield.
1 Belted Kingfisher - male
Lots of Horned Lark - but no Snow Buntings
1 Loggerhead Shrike
4 American Goldfinch

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at aol.com