Subject: upper Columbia trip
Date: Jan 19 16:14:51 1999
From: Ruth Sullivan - godwit at worldnet.att.net


Hello Hal,
i am delighted to see you list, i hear what you are saying not having THE
LONG LIST" it's a MARATHON not a birding trip. you had some qualithy birds
i would go for.Alone the this birding in this countys is breath-taking. We
made 5 trips last winter in to this countys. Vicki and i will going for the
Sharp-tailed Grouse next weekend, this is our target bird, all the others
are a bonus. I spend two weekends in Leavenworth to get some good photos of
the Rustic Bunting, it payed of to see this bird more than once, the Bonus
was the Northern Pygmy Owl real close.
Ruth Sullivan

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> From: Hal Opperman <halop at accessone.com>
> To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: upper Columbia trip
> Date: Monday, January 18, 1999 10:00 PM
>
> 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