Subject: Okanogan Memorial Day Weekend Trip - Tahoma Audubon
Date: Jun 2 22:18:06 1999
From: Gene Revelas - grevelas at striplin.com


Hi Tweets,

Bruce Labar and I led a Tahoma Audubon trip to Okanogan County over the
Memorial Day weekend. Actually, members of four chapters - Tahoma, Black
Hills, Rainier, and Seattle - were in attendance (15 birders total), so it
was kind of a cross-cultural exchange. Thanks much to tweeters Jim Flynn
and Rick Romea for their helping in identifying and locating birds for the
less experienced members of the group.

We birded two full days (6 am to 6 pm) on Sat and Sun and Monday morning.
We were based in Omak, but did considerable road work you'll see from the
highlights listed below. We tallied 141 species in the county. For me,
highlights and curious observations included:

- Bobolinks at five different locations (Aeneas Valley Rd/Rt 20
intersection, Moses Meadow, along the Tonasket-Oroville Rd north of
Ellisforde, Chopaka Road/Loomis-Oroville Rd intersection, and east end of
Toats Coulee Rd.
- Northern Waterthrush at both the Aeneas Valley Rd/Rt 20 intersection and
along the bridge in Ellisforde that crosses the Okan. River.
- a single Grashopper Sparrow in the wet meadow on Aeneas Valley Rd. The
same meadow held many (20+) Bobolinks and Common Snipe were winnowing all
around.
- Red-eyed Vireo at both Champney Slough and the Okanogan River delta where
it joins the Columbia (just east of Brewster).
- White-headed Woodpeckers (m & f) on the west side of Lyman Lake-Moses
Meadow Rd (15.7 miles north from Rt 155).
- Williamson's Sapsucker at the Havillah Sno-park.
- a single Bonapartes Gull (basic plumage) on Conconully Reservoir
- Black-chinned, Calliope, and Rufous hummers visiting a single feeder in
the town of Loomis.
- Nesting Common Loons at Lost Lake
- Bufflehead (male/female pair, nesting ?) on upper Lake Conconully
- Five empid species (Hammonds, Dusky, Gray, Willow, and Pacific-slope
Flycatchers). The Gray in the area known for them along Lake Cameron Road.
- One actively singing Hammonds Flycatcher that appeared to be on territory
in the open-canopy, minimal-understory Ponderosa Pine woodlands along Moses
Meadow Rd. The same location had the probable nesting WH Woodpeckers,
White-breasted Nuthatch, nesting Western Bluebirds, and Townsends
Solitaires carrying nesting material.

The spring seems to have arrived, finally, in the low to mid-elevation
portions of the Okanogan, although temperatures and the winds were brisk at
times. Common Nighthawks are back in numbers. The paved road to the Long
Swamp Campground was passable, although the area around the campground was
still locked in winter and the road (FR 39) heading uphill from Long Swamp
was snowbound.

If anyone would like more details about the trip, please feel free to
e-mail me directly.

Gene Revelas
Tacoma, WA
grevelas at striplin.com