Subject: upper Columbia trip
Date: Jan 18 22:00:49 1999
From: Hal Opperman - halop at accessone.com


The four of us are just back from a three-day loop through Kittitas, Grant,
Okanogan, Ferry, and Douglas Counties. We ended up with 72 species,
without having a long species list as a goal. Some of the highlights:

Small flocks of GRAY PARTRIDGES east of Kittitas along the old Vantage
highway on the 16th, and about five miles up the Wakefield-Cameron Lake
Road south of Okanogan on the 18th.

A single SHARP-TAILED GROUSE on the 17th in small trees along Peter Dam
Creek in extreme southeastern Okanogan County. We observed it feeding in
the branches just east of the lane into Moses Ranch at 281 Peter Dam Road,
on the north side of the road just where it crosses the creek. This road
leaves SR 155 a mile or so north of Elmer City; the grouse spot is approx.
0.4-0.5 mile east of the Buffalo Lake Road turnoff.

Three WILD TURKEYS on the 17th in Ferry County, along the north side of SR
20 a few miles east of Republic, in the O'Brien Creek drainage.

An adult GLAUCOUS GULL on the 16th, right at the river's edge in Grant
County, directly across from the Gingko SP overlook at Vantage. This was a
large gull with a pale gray mantle and white primary tips.

A NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL on the 17th, sitting out in the open on some brush in
the middle of a field, about a half-mile north of the Wauconda grange hall
along Toroda Creek Road in Okanogan County.

A LONG-EARED OWL and a porcupine on the 18th, roosting in a patch of trees
a mile south of SR 172, on the east side of Heritage Road in Douglas County.

A CANYON WREN and a GREAT HORNED OWL, both heard in Northrup Canyon off SR
155 on the 16th. We watched an estimated 40-50 BALD EAGLES coming in to
roost there late in the day.

Approximately 40 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS on the 18th, in poplar trees just west
of the lower end of Central Ferry Canyon Road in Douglas County, in the
orchard area across the river southwest of Brewster.

A HARRIS'S SPARROW on the 18th, along Monse River Road about a hundred
yards north of the "town" of Monse in Okanogan County, across the river
from Hwy 97 approximately three miles north of the SR 17 intersection. It
was feeding with some WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS.

SNOW BUNTINGS were scarce. We scanned through many large flocks of HORNED
LARKS on the 18th but found only a few buntings in three such flocks, in
two places in Douglas County: soon after Central Ferry Canyon Road reaches
the plateau, at about 26 NE (several birds in two flocks less than a mile
apart), and along Hwy 2 at Atkins Lake, about seven miles west of Dry Falls
Dam.

Finches were also very scarce, to the point that the only RED CROSSBILLS we
saw were hanging out near feeders in Brewster. No white-wingeds, Pine
Grosbeaks, or rosy-finces.

A combination of fog and increasingly heavy snowfall shortened our day a
bit on the 17th, but other than that the weather was fine for birding.
Today was especially beautiful with the fresh snow all across the high
plateaus.

JoLynn Edwards
Sheila McCartan
Hal Opperman
Tom Schooley
Medina and Olympia, Washington