Hi tweets,

Got my grades in Sunday evening and took off the next morning for a rapid
grand tour of favorite old haunts in eastern Washington, chasing some dated
stakeout reports en route. Beautiful weather; some truly violent thunder
storms; 170 species of birds; one bath in five days.

I started on South Cle Elum ridge where a Great Gray Owl was reported last
June. It proved inaccessible again, as it requires a minimum 3 mile
bushwhack to get there, but I did find a suspicious contour feather which
I've sent to Dennis Paulson for review. I also got skunked on the Great
Grays at the Highland winter park near Havilah, at which site I'm now battin
..000 for three tries. That's where I weathered the most impressive thunder
storm in recent memory, cozy inside my car. I also missed finding the
White-faced Ibis(es) at the Othello and Dodson x Frenchman Hills Rds.
stakeouts as well as the Snowy Egret near Rock Island and the Tricolored
Blackbirds at Othello.

So much for what I didn't see. I did find the Converse's LEAST FLYCATCHER at
the outhouse grove at the Okanogan River bridge just east of Brewster,
calling somewhat fitfully in the hot late afternoon (but no sign of the
mystery black-headed gulls there, which I heard about later). It's in a
grove of White Poplar, Siberian Elm, and Black Walnut, nicely international
mix of trees.

I heard a second LEAST FLYCATCHER along Toroda Creek Rd. 0.5 mi west of the
junction with the W. Keller River Rd. at Curlew, Ferry Co. I briefly heard
the Hardy Creek Least yesterday for a total of three. Leasts seem to be all
over this spring. That was one of seven "species" of Empidonax flycatchers I
heard and saw this trip ("species" is in quotes because one of these is the
"CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER," of doubtful species status, IMHO). I heard and/or
saw "Western Flycatchers" west of Chesaw in northeastern Okanogan County
(n=2) and in Ferry Co., 2.9 mi w of the Toroda Creek x W. Kettle River Rd.
junction (recorded singing full song). These all sounded to my ear like
typical western Washington "PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS" -- as did one at
Hardy Canyon, near Wenas, Yakima County, seen and heard yesterday. Then to
my surprise I head a calling and singing "CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER"; the male
location note was more distinctly two-parted than is typical of
"Pacific-slopes" and the song more what I would describe as "liquid,
musical" than the "thin, tight" notes of the Pacific-slopes. I didn't have
my recorder handy, unfortunately, and it did not call again after I returned
fully armed. I heard and recorded two more near Dixie in Walla Walla County
where the Biscuit Ridge Rd. (yes, I did see GREEN-TAILED TOWHEES at their
usual spot there, three of them, two singing males) climbs out of the south
fork of Dry Creek. According to the powers that be (aka, Ned K. Johnson) the
Westerns here should be all "Cordilleran." The songs fit but the location
notes were single parted. Go figure. I rounded out my flycatcher list (which
included, of course, numerous WILLOW, HAMMOND'S, and DUSKY FLYCATCHERS) with
a calling GRAY FLYCATCHER on Hog Ranch ridge above Wenas Campground. Got a
fine view of it also, complete with characteristic downward tailwag. I also
found an ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER on Colockum Pass Road 0.4 mi s of Kingsbury
Rd. out of Wenatchee, Chelan Co.

Also did well on sparrows, including a singing BLACK-THROATED SPARROW 0.4 mi
s of the entrance to the Wanapum State Park south of Vantage in Kittitas
Co., an historic site. Also had a number of SAGE SPARROWS a couple of miles
further south near the new John Wayne trail parking lot in very short
sagebrush habitat, where they shared the terrain with LARK SPARROWS and
HORNED LARKS. Thanks to Warren Hall's directions I found the Centennial
Trail CLAY-COLORED SPARROW mini-colony east of Spokane. I heard (and
recorded) four singing males between 200 yards and 0.6 miles west of Harvard
Rd. along the paved bike path. They've been nesting there regularly,
apparently, since 1994.

Water birds of some note include a pair of high plumaged HORNED GREBES on a
small pond just south of Molson (of beer fame) in northeastern Okanogan
County. Curiously, here and on the lakes just nw of Molson were a number of
SCAUP pairs which looked more like GREATER SCAUPS than LESSERS, though I
wouldn't bet the house on it. The females all had the pale ear patch that
has been described as definitive of Greaters and both males and females'
heads seemed rather flatly rounded, their bills rather broad with a
good-sized nail; one pair in flight seemed to have a long white wing stripe.
So what gives? GREATER SCAUP are not supposed to nest south of the Yukon?
Also in this vicinity, along Toroda Creek and at Beth and Beaver Lakes
several stunning RED-NECKED GREBES in high dudgeon plus BARROW'S GOLDENEYES
with chickies, etc.

I revisited the Wilson's Creek TRICOLORED BLACKBIRD site of last year and
could see nothing of interest from the bluff along 22nd St. south of the
creek (How did Dave Beaudette spot them from here!?), but drove around
through Wilson Creek, out Maple Ave. to Kanniway Creek Rd. (where I spotted
the FERRUGINOUS HAWK on her [or his?] nest) just west of the 23rd street
turn). Got a fine look at one male and two females and lesser looks at
another male, as they foraged and called to one another along the slough
edge north of the big cattail swamp. The male showed the broad
white-bordered crimson (not scarlet) epaulet, but also (a few field marks
Kevin Aanerud clued me in to since my last visit here in late April) a
distinctly squarer tail than a RED-WINGED; it also continuously jerked it's
tail up sharply and steeply. (I later watched a Red-winged behave similarly,
but not as dramatically.) I could see a distinct metallic purplish sheen to
the head and upper back, and noted the slender bill and generally sleeker
appearance vis-a-vis the Red-winged. The two females were sooty on the lower
belly and under-tail and lower back and rump without noticeable streaking.
So now I do believe!

Add the four singing male and one female BOBOLINKS at the traditional
timothy field just south of Cusick in Pend Oreille County and I can't
complain about my Icterid list either. Nor about my warbler list, which
represented a clean sweep (minus Hermit's), with NORTHERN WATERTHRUSHES in
Okanogan, Ferry, and Pend Oreille Counties, the westernmost at the junction
of the forks of Mary Anne Creek west of Chesaw, and three singing males at
South Skookum Lake in Pend Oreille.

I haven't been to some of these places for almost 20 years. Some, such as
Kalispell Bog, one of my favorite spots of all, is no longer accessible
(unless you're willing to hike in five miles or so). (My first edition of
Wahl & Paulson's Washington Bird Guide [1972] is sorely out of date. Guess
I'll have to buy a more recent edition.) Skyline Ridge out of Dayton in the
western Blue Mountains, Columbia Co., is even beautifuler than I remember
and chock full of WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKERS. A pair was feeding young in a
stump at Galbreath Springs. I spent a fine evening at Godman Springs at over
6000 feet well into Boreal Owl range, but no luck on that, though a
GREAT-HORNED OWL did join me in the hunt. Venus and the crescent moon and
the cerulean dusky northwestern horizon outlined by sub-alpine fir spires
was an inspiration. As I lay me down to sleep (2000 feet lower on the ridge)
two FLAMMULATED OWLS hooted and I got eyeball to eyeball with an elk.

Gene Hunn.