Subject: The St. Andrews Flyway
Date: Apr 13 22:16:13 1999
From: Diann MacRae - tvulture at halcyon.com


Hi, Tweets

Aahhh . . . the plateau was alive with the sound of crane music today!
Gorgeous melodies, and I wonder how many of the local residents pay
attention to it. After a zip on cranes a couple weeks ago, Ann van der
Geld and I took off early yesterday so I could photograph a vulture "roost"
in Electric City that Jerry Converse told me about. My ulterior motive was
to "intercept" the cranes staging at Othello on their journey north. We
found more than we dreamed of . . .

On Monday, with ~15 mph westerly winds across the Waterville Plateau,
birdlife was a little, shall we say, hesitant. Nesting redtails, ravens,
and great horned owls were easily seen since we know the primitive roads
quite well. No cranes. Four turkey vultures did turn up floating about,
however, plus a roughleg, several harriers, and a few redtails. Yeah, even
a couple bald eagles. We decided to cut up the west side of Banks Lake via
St. Andrews and still saw nothing earthshaking. Few passerines save
meadowlarks, horned larks, and blackbirds (oh well, we saw kingbirds and
others, but we look "up" a lot!). At Sims Corner, I spotted a hopeful
Swainson's hawk and sure enough, one was there. Then spotted a group of
large birds coming into the Sims Corner Reservoir. Quite by accident, we
were parked on a high spot where we could see most of the small reservoir.
Sure enough, they were sandhills coming in - unfortunately, we could hear
nothing because of the wind. They landed, and Ann, who had the scope out,
commented on the large boulders at the edges of the water. Now, there are
lots of large rocks out on the plateau, but, of course, they were
hunkered-down sandhills - over 2,500 of them. Hardly a neck sticking up,
no noise, but they were all around the edges of the reservoir. I thought -
aha! - the Othello cranes have finally started north, but after today, I
very much doubt it.

After an early start today, we headed down the east side of Banks Lake,
through Coulee City and onto SR 2. After about seven miles I spotted a
distant group of large birds, we stopped to check, and all around us, but
still unseen, were calling sandhill cranes. The group seen was kettling
and wandering about as were most of the groups seen during the next three
hours. We began driving the primitive roads both east and west and north
and south, all under the St. Andrews "flyway," and everytime we stopped
(every three minutes, at least) we heard cranes all around. Many were
flying at very high altitudes and couldn't be seen with the naked eye.
Many were quite visible. All seemed to be calling and enjoying the
wonderful day as they gradually headed north. Our estimate is between
2-3,000 cranes today, Tuesday, and certainly none were of the Sims Corner
Reservoir group.

Randy Hill, did your cranes leave yesterday or are these even another group
passing through?

I could talk about the cranes forever, but won't any further . . . for
those interested, we did, indeed, find Jerry's vulture roost. Three of the
five were present, the tree is practically on the main highway through
Electric City, SR155, and was about forty steps from the lakeside motel
where we stayed. The whole trip was more than a treat. If anyone is going
that way and likes Mexican food, there is an outstanding restaurant in
Electric City that can't be surpassed here, in my opinion: La Presa, which
has excellent food, cordial staff, and comfortable surroundings.

Northrup Canyon and all of the areas were good birding, but nothing
terribly out of the ordinary. At the park in Coulee City, two pair of
Canada geese had just hatched goslings which were quite fun to watch, plus
two common loons in handsome plumage. Ospreys were busy at the Peshastin
nest and building a new one at the Index bridge.

Sorry to be so long (anyone wanting more details can ask - we did see other
species!).

Cheers, Diann

Diann MacRae
Bothell
tvulture at halcyon.com