Hi Woody --

I found a watch in my car after I got home and cleaned up a bit. It looks
like it might be a woman's watch, perhaps Leah's? The little buckle had come
off so she might have set it down or lost it. Perhaps you could check with
her and let me know if she wants it back and I'll send it. I'll need an
address.

Any White-winged Crossbills over on the west side of the Okanogan and in the
Methow / Twisp / Winthrop area yet? As I sent you earlier (Okanogan Highlands
report), they seem to be locally numerous in spruce groves over on the east
side up in the Highlands. Keep an eye on your heavily cone laden spruce
groves. The White-wingeds seem to like those best. I would be interested in
hearing how widespread this winter's eruption may actually be or if it's just
a localized event. There has been another report of White-winged Crossbills
from a couple areas around Bridgeport this past week. Also, everyone who's
gone rushing up to the Sitzmark site since the initial report was posted
haven't been disappointed.

About the 'possible' wolf tracks... I'm feeling even more confident that
those tracks up along Alder Creek were indeed fresh wolf tracks. I had a very
large coyote (thought *that* was a wolf at first glance!) cross the road in
front of me the next day up in the Highlands tracking across the fresh 4" snow
cover. I jumped out to check and compare, and even for a large coyote, those
were half the size of the Alder Creek prints and different. The triangular
shaped pad print of the Gray Wolf is fairly diagnostic I think. I forget what
the term was that you used to describe the walking behavior of the wolf where
the hind steps follow exactly in place of the front step. I didn't know that,
but that would certainly explain why most prints showed 4 toe impressions, and
occasional ones showed five. There were nice distinct 'claw' prints as well
in those Alder Creek tracks. Leah and I studied and examined the tracks for
quite a long time. You seemed fairly confident at the time that those were
very likely wolf tracks. They appeared to follow fresh deer prints and we did
see deer in that rather uninhabited area and detected no sign of other human
life or recent habitation, thus even a large dog out roaming the wilds at that
location would seem less likely.

I had a wonderful time at Twisp and perhaps would hope to do it again next
year if my sea-going field schedule permits it, and I really enjoyed the
opportunity to meet you and all the great folks of the Methow. I'd also like
to push forward with an 'official' and organized "Okanogan Highlands" count.
I don't think that there has ever been such a CBC in Washington, nor even in
adjacent parts of BC. I'd have thought that the Cannings brothers would have
done something along those lines up in the BC Okanogan by now, but near as I
can tell, counts up there are still in the Okanogan valley. The winterized
Highlands are just too rich and too good to let that area slip by unnoticed.

Sincerely & Cheers, Richard

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)