Saturday morning I birded the Okanogan Highlands, primarily right around the
Sitzmark ski area, DeLorme page 115, 7, A-B. I only had about 4 hours so I
wasn't able to cover the area nearly as well as it deserved. The weather was
good, visability good, temp. around 32. There were lots of birds flying
overhead, lots of them singing and calling from two trees behind the tree I
could see, so I was only able to visually identify about 2% of what was there.
But the good news is that I was able to see the bird I had come for, the
White-Winged Crossbill, right on the top of a Spruce tree at perfect scoping
distance. It's very possible that there were plenty more in the trees behind
the trees among the Crossbills that were calling to me, but!. This sighting
was in the mixed spruce groove, 1/4 mile north of the ski area at the
intersection of Hungry Hollow road. Also in that same groove of trees were
large numbers of Red Crossbills, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Juncos and Mountain
Chicadees.

All told, saw the following:
Northern Harrier-1
Red-tailed Hawk-3
Rough-legged Hawk-4 ( 1 dark )
Northern Shrike-1
American Kestrel-1
Sharp-tailed Grouse-1
Rock Dove-5
Clark's Nutcracker-6
Raven-2
Mountain Chickadee-4 ( heared 100's )
Red-breasted Nuthatch-5 ( heared 100's )
Starling-7
Red Crossbill-10 ( 100's? unidentified, overhead or behind tree )
White-winged Crossbill-2 ( 100's? unidentified, overhead or behind tree )
House Finch-30

Jim Comerford
Spokane