Subject: Sage sparrow behavior and various E. WA sightings
Date: Mar 17 21:54:25 1999
From: S. Downes - sdownes at u.washington.edu


Tweets,
Took a trek to eastern washington today and while some things were obvious
misses there were some other good items, though nothing really noteworthy.
The loop went from Ellensburg-Old Vantage Hwy.-Wanapum Dam Rd-Crab
Creek-Hwy.26 to Othello-Moses Lake-Dodson Rd-Ephrata-back to Old Vantage
Hwy. Total of 500 miles.
Amazingly I missed Say's Phoebe.
Along lower crab creek Loggerhead shrikes were back in force, I counted 18
just by road birding.
Sandhills were abundant at the ponds along Hwy.26 west of Othello, I
estimated 2500-3000.
Checking all the Burrowing Owl spots I knew of in the area, Dodson,
Lemasters near Othello, Gorge and near Ephrata could find no early
returns.
I also had no luck in locating the snowys seen throughout the winter near
Moses Lk. does anybody know if they're gone?
The were still LEOW's in roosting areas along Crab creek, though I did
have 2 in two different locations, maybe pairing up, should be nesting
soon.
Wonderful concentrations of robins along crab creek, along with one
Townsend's Solitaire and one Hermit Thrush.
Along Wanapum Dam rd. there were nice concentrations of VG swallows.
At the Quilomene WRA I had the best experience of the day for me at least,
watching Sage sparrow courtship behavior for about a half an hour from
about 15 feet away.
The following is a description of the display, quite interesting I think.
First the male would sing from either on the ground or about 1 foot off
the ground, the female came over to investigate and the male would hop
behind her and follow her on the ground for a period of several feet,
occassionally singing. I thought this was odd as I was not sure of the
purpose of singing while pursuing a mate on the ground. The female would
stop and the male hopped right next to her and they flew in tandem into
the air facing each other. This flight was to a height of 7 or 8 feet,
straight up and then straight down.
This process was duplicated several times, perhaps once every minute. The
only time this was interrupted was when another bird flew into the area
and the two birds chased this bird off and then flew back to the orginal
area. This happened every 4-5 minutes. I noticed no actual copulation of
the pair as the birds did not touch in flight. It was a treat for me to be
able to observe this behavior without binocs from about 15 feet away and
the birds seemed to completely ignore my close presence.

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA

"Birds don't read bird books. (That's why they are seen doing things they
are not supposed to do)." -Mary Wood