Sunday 7 June I heard and saw at least 3 Lark Sparrows on Bethel Ridge,
between 3,800' and 4,000'. The habitat was scrubby a mosaic of
bitterbrush/big sagebrush with scattered bunchgrasses alternating with
thin-soiled terrain grown to low-growing shrub-steppe plants (especially
buckwheats). They were on the ridge-top in one location only a 100 m from
scattered ponderosa pine groves on the north slope. These sparrows were
only 3 miles from Williamson's Sapsuckers, which I ran into an hour later
west up Bethel Ridge, illustrating how abrupt vegetation zonation is on the
east slopes.

These were the first Lark Sparrows I've encountered in the Cascades. I note
that Smith et al. (Breeding Birds of Washington Sytate: location data and
predicted distributions) documents Lark Sparrows in openings of the
ponderosa pine zone in northeastern WA. Anyone in Tweeterland with info on
Lark Sparrows in the Cascades or in any mountains in Washington? I'm
interested in the distribution and habitat choice of this bird, which is
mainly a Columbia Basin species in Washington.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA