Ruth Sullivan wrote:
>
> Hi There, i am glad to hear someone tried to see all this good Birds.We are
> going on the 3rd over to Okanogan Highland's, or you think we should not
> try, because the roads are to bad?We all like to go desperate to see the
> WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL bonanza.
> Ruth Sullivan
> GODWIT at WORLDNET.ATT.NET
>
> ----------
> > Tweets:
A quick report on our Okanogan Highlands trip today:

The roads were fine and the weather great most of the time, except for
the fog which settled in about 3:30 pm. Traveling with Sandy and Jerry
Converse was a delight although the bird puns were a little weak.

Highlights include: the quick glimpse of the Great Gray Owl which was
perched 10' off the left side of the Highland Snow Park road just barly
beyond the 3rd cattle guard. We knew something was up as several pine
squirrels were protesting rather loudly. We had not yet seen the owl
and it soon swept down and away into the shadows as we were exiting the
car. It responded to our taped calls, so we left him alone, satasfied
that we had a fairly close, although brief, encounter with the Great
Gray.
Another happening was the flock of 203 + or - 50 Snow Buntings which
flashed overhead. Their underparts contrasting against the blue sky
brought out a few WOWS! They were seen working the wheat stubble along
the Grange road as it approaches the Nealey road intersection ( loop
drive described by the Streifferts last night).

Throughout the day we enjoyed the small groups of White-winged
Crossbills and larger gatherings of Red C. Each species was precisley
where they were supposed to be, habitat wise, as described by Richard
Rowlett. The 1" thick hoar frost covering every branch and cone didn't
seem to dampen their delightful call notes. As promised, they were
always in company with Red-breasted Nuthatch and Mtn. Chickadee and a
few Common Redpoll.
The three juvenile N. Shrikes appeared to be much larger than the adults
seen during our local CBC, wintering at our lower elevations.

A single Gray Jay and two Clark's Nutcrackers were noted just after the
right turn north of the ski area on the Tonasket-Havillah road.

We noted 16 Rough-legged Hawks, 5 of which were working the ridge lift
as a tight group just as the wind picked up about 3 pm. We heard (only)
a Pileated Woodpecker near the Highland Snow Park parking lot. BTW a pit
toilet is available at that site.
On the way home below the Highlands, perhaps, because she was tired,
Sandy gasped ... "look, there's a cat on the wire"! It was a Great
Horned Owl perched on an overhead telephone cable scoping out a possible
snack. Hey, maybe he was eyeballing a cat?

We made no serious attempt to keep track of numbers of the larger
flocks, but they were certainly in the range of those already listed. We
did list 22 species.
In addition to those already mentioned we saw:
juncos (10)
magpies (3)
harriers (2)
red-tailed hawk (8)
starlings (47)
ravens (8)
downy woodpecker(1)
goldfinch (30)

Gary Kuiper
Coulee Dam, WA