Just returned from a week in Eastern Wa and saw some interesting things:

1. Sitting on my porch in Desert Aire, I was watching a Horned Lark forage on the ground, presumably on seeds and/or small insects. After about 10 minutes, the bird suddenly took flight and flew straight up circling higher and higher directly over the takeoff point until I lost sight of him, probably 800 to 1000 ft high. I have head of Eurasian Skylarks doing something like this but in 10 years of observing the Horned Lark, this is the first time I have seen this. They are usually content to sit on a rock proudly proclaiming it as theirs with their incessant tinkling song.

2. I have been noting the arrival time of the Nighthawks at Desert Aire. We are not there every weekend but the earliest I have seen them is about June 1st. One showed up on 5/23 this year. Just a single bird with no diving displays. Earlier in the week I did find about 10 of them in a roost in the trees at the top of the road down to Frenchmen's Coulee where White Throated Swifts, Rock and Canyon Wrens and a Prarie Falcon were also be found.

3. I found a White Faced Ibis in the ponds south of the intersection of Dotson and Frenchmen's Rd in Grant County. Not sure how rare this fellow is in Washington; I seem to recollect a previous sighting in the same area.

4. Also from my porch, I watched a pair of Loggerhead Shrikes cavorting while making a kind of winnowing call. After some time, only one remained sitting on top of my hangar. He suddenly flew to the ground a hundred feet away and picked up and devoured a small beetle; avian eyes never cease to amaze me.

Good birding to all,

Mike Mulcahy