What started out to be a 300 mile birding trip turned out to
be a
595 mile adventure. We left Friday night for West Richland and

arrived about 10pm. We slept in a casino parking lot and got
up early and were at the Indigo Bunting sight at 6am. Ruth and

Patrick Sullivan were all ready there. There were several
birders
there. The local paper had a front page article Saturday
morning
with a picture of the bunting, location and phone numbers.
The bird was there singing away. A lovely sight. Jerry got
some
photos and we anxious to see how they turned out.
After spending some time enjoying the bunting and the other
birders
we had the pleasure of a guided tour of the area by Dennis
Rockwell.

By Madame Dorian Park we saw BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON,
WHITE PELICANS, CASPIAN TERNS, WOOD DUCKS, and
MALLARDS.

In a pond at mile marker 103 on Hwy 12 there were WILSON'S
PHALAROPES, BLACK-NECKED STILTS, COMMON SNIPE,
SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, LEAST, WESTERN and two
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS.

We decided to head for Mary Hill Museum. Walking around the
grounds
there is always enjoyable. Just as a note of interest, they
have some all white
peacocks. We saw a LESSER GOLDFINCH, which was a new bird
for our life list.

After looking at the book "A Guide to Bird Finding in
Washington" by Wahl
and Paulson, we headed towards Bickleton to check out Rock
Creek road.
This was the best area of the trip. We turned off the
Bickleton "highway" onto
the Rock Creek road and drove five and one half miles south,
turned around
and drove back. We spent about three hours on the road viewing
VESPER,
LARK and CHIPPING SPARROWS, BLACK HEADED GROSBEAKS,
WESTERN WOOD PEEWEES, ROCK WRENS, LAZULI BUNTINGS,
and four ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS. There were also at least 8
LESSER GOLDFINCHES near the Bridge at the Rosco Imrie Ranch.

On our way out we heard a wren singing and stopped to
investigate. They were right along side the road. After IDing
them as BEWICK'S WRENS we listen to the CD and the song was
not quite the same. While we were listening, we could hear the
wrens
and they started imitating the CD song. There were five of
them. It appeared
to be a pair and three young ones.

We arrived in Bickleton (a town of 90 people) about 9pm. Jerry
jokingly
said "where is the city park". We found it! An old church
building and a small
gravel parking lot. So, we spent the night. It was very quiet.
In the morning there were four dogs taking their morning
stroll. In a kidding manner Jerry said "good morning dogs"
expecting them to start barking. They didn't, instead they all
walked over to the truck and got him to give each of them a
few pats on the head and then they all continued on their
morning stroll. As they strolled away I think I heard them
saying......"it's about time we saw some new faces in town."
:-))

On our way home, we thought we would drive Lower Crab Creek.
We were
about three miles down the road and spotted a mostly yellow
bird, larger than
a Goldfinch, and pulled off to ID it. Not a good idea. The
shoulders are blow
sand with gravel over them. The truck and camper sunk in and
we could not
drive out. We tried digging down and putting boards under the
tires, but we
were stuck! Thanks to our cell phone and a towing company in
Beverly, we
were out and back on the road in about an hour. It was a fifty
dollar bird and
we never did ID it.

Along Banks Lake on our way we saw alot of CANADA GEESE, an
OSPREY,
a CASPIAN TERN, a WESTERN GREBE and a RING-NECKED PHEASANT.

Oh, I forgot, Friday night along Lake Lenore, on one of the
islands, were about two
hundred DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS.

Seeing the INDIGO BUNTING was great and the whole trip turned
out to be
a memorable adventure.


Sandy Converse
Grand Coulee, WA

http://members.tripod.com/nature_scenic_photos/

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember, amateurs built the Ark and
Professionals built the Titanic.