Subject: Fw: West Richland and Beyond...
Date: Aug 2 15:00:27 1999
From: Ruth Sullivan - godwit at worldnet.att.net




----------
> From: Ruth Sullivan <godwit at worldnet.att.net>
> To: sanjer at televar.com; Inland-nw-birders <inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu>;
tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: West Richland and Beyond...
> Date: Monday, August 02, 1999 2:29 PM
>
> Hi Jerry and Sandy,
> You talking about sleeping in a parking lot. We left Tacoma at 11.45pm
and
> already starting looking at 5.00AM starting of with a pair of Barn Owls.
> Only fanatic birders can drive themselfe to such extreme. We heared the
> Indigo Bunting calling already at 5.20AM.I got my photos back and there
are
> ok,but never as our Pygmy Owl in Robinson Canyon.I got one realy good
shoot
> flying of where you realy can see the brown marking on this bird, so this
> bird is not all an Adult.You came up with a good list of birds, we had
> basicly all our birding right at the Ranch, Patrick finding the Gray
> Catbird was as extra bonus. I believe he put six county birds on his list
> for Benton Co.Speaking of the Article in the "TRI-CITY HEROLD" i kind of
> was in shock to find out that Kristin mention my age,now every one knows
> how old (or young )i am. When she interviewed me she ask my age, but i
> never figured she mention it in the Article. It is a verry well written
> Article and also a fairly good photo of this bird.Comming back to you
> sightings The"Lesser Goldfinches"of eight is a verry good finding,there
> are usual staying pretty much close to the Columbia Gorge. The Grandview
> Sewage Pond's was closed ,there we could had some good Shorebirds.
> Now i will tell you about our exitement comming home.
> We stopped at the top of White Pass call PACIFIC TRAIL trailhead, we
found
> good birds there before. I was so tirednot sleeping for 29hours i stayed
in
> the Car. Patrick went and came back for the Dragonflie-Net. After a while
> he came back again telling me that he catched one smal Dragonflie. I was
> awaken at an instant, looking at this Dragonflie it looked like a'"
> RED-WAISTED WHITEFACE" Leucorrhinia proxima only found in fife countys.I
> found large colonys in Okanogan Co.when i went this year earlier there
was
> this emergen. When i got to this smal pond there where so many Mountain
> Emeralds onother species what i din't see before. I realy was amazed over
> Patrick try to catch Dragonflies. This hobby is catching on and before
you
> know you are going out looking for birds, but also looking for this
> beautiful Dragonflies.(There can not be ignored). I will leaving tomorrow
> for Pend Oreille Co.to find my last of the Emerald the "Ocellated
Emerald"
> This going to be an intersting trip with also some birding.
> You have to watch out when birding and driving it was September 1991
around
> Grayland for a Mongolien Plover. I was driving up and down the beach and
as
> i turned on the end my back of the car thurs the Ocean i was stuck and
> could not move my car. The car was tilting already and the tide was
slowly
> coming in.An angel was with me that day, a man with a Jeep came to help
me
> and onother truck and there pulled me out of ttis wet Sand. How can i
> forget this ever, i also never found this bird. To this day i will never
> drive on Ocean Beaches. I am glad it turned out so you can drive home.
> Ruth
>
>
>
>
>
> .. I WAS STU
>
> ----------
> > From: sanjer at televar.com
> > To: Inland-nw-birders <inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu>; tweeters
> <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> > Subject: West Richland and Beyond...
> > Date: Monday, August 02, 1999 11:37 AM
> >
> > 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.
> >