Yesterday's Seattle Audubon field trip around around Vantage had 55
species. We have run this trip in the last half of February about four
times in the last six or seven years, looking for early spring arrivals as
well as characteristic winter residents. We follow the old Vantage highway
from Kittitas to Vantage, then the road down the west side of the river as
far as Sentinel Gap, and finally over to Lower Crab Creek in Grant County,
east from Beverly. Sometimes we nip into Frenchman Coulee but didn't this
year. There are 10-12 hoped-for species, and in any given year we usually
get about half of them. This year's misses were Prairie Falcon, Chukar,
Say's Phoebe, bluebirds, and Bohemian Waxwing. We were successful with
Golden Eagle, Long-eared Owl (three or four in Russian-olives at the
Nunnalee Lake-Merry Lake access along Lower Crab Creek), Rock Wren, Sage
Sparrow (several singing in the upper part of Schnebly Coulee), and
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch (a flock of about 80 above and below Wanapum Dam on
the Kittitas County side). There was also an unexpected Western Gull out
in the Columbia opposite the boat launch at Wanapum campground.

Hal Opperman