Dear Tweeters,

Here is an account of a trip to the NE corner of Okanogan Co. on Dec.21st
and 22nd. I just returned home about 2 hours ago. This account is from a
note sent to Andy Stepniewski.
Vic Nelson and I (George Gerdts) just returned from the hinterlands. We
had a grand trip, a bit too rushed as usual, but well worth the effort.
Highlights were the Prairie Falcon at Lamoine on the Columbia Plateau north
of Waterville. It made my first 5 falcon "day*". "Day" is in quotes because
the Gyrfalcon was seen in the afternoon of Dec. 20th on Dungeness Spit (while
doing the Sequim CBC) along with the Peregrine. The Prairie, Kestrel, and
Merlin were seen before noon on the 21st. So an asterisk * for my 5-falcon
day...
There was also 1 Long-eared Owl at Lamoine. Since the plateau is
presently snow free, there were no concentrations of Horned Larks and we saw
no Snow Buntings. We had 4 Rough-legged Hawks also on the plateau (a rather
low number in my experience) and one Merlin in Wenatchee. We stayed
overnight in Omak and headed north at 6:30 a.m. after watching (with the
scope) the "bright" full moon, the rings of Saturn, and Jupiter's moons, all
seen the evening before. It was foggy and cold as we reached Tonasket and
headed toward Havillah. The only thing of interest at Havillah besides a few
Mt. Chickadees, a Pileated Woodpecker, and 3 Gray Jays was finding Richard
Rowlett walking up the road to the snow-park area. He was just back from a
tour to the Eastern Pacific, and was R&Ring by birding and enjoying the
solitude of the Okanogan winter. At the ski-park area the sun burst through
the fog and revealed a gorgeous blue-sky day with crisp, cold air. It was
exhilarating just being there. Of course, no Great Gray, Richard had spent a
good part of the night owling and found only 1 Great Horned: so much for the
full moon theory....
Fog enveloped Chesaw, but we did manage to find a N. Pygmy Owl on the
road to Bolster about 3 miles north of Chesaw. We were doing our bit to
search for infiltrators from Canada, but found none, either human or avian.
The road to Bonaparte Lake was closed from the North end, as had been
predicted, so we completed the loop to Wauconda on Highway 20 by heading
south on Toroda Creek Rd. We were driving slowly along Highway 20 when Vic
made the spot of the trip. Going 35 mph he saw a flock of small birds
feeding on the catkins of the Water Birch (Betula occidentalis). I
immediately turned around and parked. The flock contained about 125 birds.
One of the Redpolls stood out dramatically as whiter than the rest of the
birds. Knowing full well that the ID was fraught with many pitfalls, we
trained the Kowa 824 on the bird and observed the following details:
Forehead was red onto the crown. The back of the crown and onto the nape
were finely streaked and washed with yellowish-cream color. The auricular
was unstreaked and creamy yellow in color. The chin had the characteristic
black bib. There was no wash of pink on the chest or breast, both of which
were white. The sides and flanks had faint streaks, much lighter than any of
the other birds in the flock. Since we were observing the bird from about 60
- 70 feet away, looking slightly up (about 20 feet), seeing the undertail
coverts was quite easy. They were immaculate white with one faint, brown
streak. The uppertail coverts and rump were essentially white with a few
faint, brown streaks. The back had a few light-brown streaks with wide areas
of white between them. The scapulars were white to tannish and the wings had
two white wing-bars. We watched the bird and the flock for about 10 minutes
until they flushed and flew west toward Tonasket. We could not relocate the
flock. We felt certain we had a female Hoary Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni)
of the exilipes subspecies. I had seen one other Hoary Redpoll on December
28, 1984 with Gene Hunn near Pearrygin Lake north of Winthrop and several
others in June of 1991 at Churchill, Manitoba. This bird looked bigger than
the Common Redpolls in the flock and the bill was daintier --all relative, I
realize. When it moved within the flock it was very easy to relocate because
of its pronounced whiteness. The location was Highway 20 east of Tonasket
between milepost 267 and 268 on the North side of the road. There is an
extensive stand of Water Birch along the road for at least 2 miles. There
seemed to be plenty of catkins there so perhaps they will remain. To round
out the trip, we had 130 Bohemian Waxwings in a Lombardy Poplar just east of
the B&O Rd junction with Highway 20 out of Okanogan heading up to Loup Loup.
Happy Holidays and give me a call if you want more details.

George Gerdts
Bainbridge Island, WA
<geopandion at aol.com>
206-842-8138