After a very good weekend at Robinson Canyon with Ruth and Patrick and a brief
visit with Joe Mackie and Nancy Taylor, we saw a Burrowing Owl at approximately
the same location as last year. The location is: one mile SW of the
intersection of hwy 283 and 28 which is a few miles south of Ephrata, WA. It
was sitting on the power line.

I did not "snipe" any of the message so that those that are subscribed to
Inland-nw-birders only may read the report.

Jerry and Sandy Converse
Grand Coulee, WA

Ruth Sullivan wrote:

> Hello Tweets,
>
> My mother and I spent Memorial Weekend in E WA, starting at Wenas Campout
> Sat.-early Sunday with the intention of mainly birding, and finding
> dragonflies. At Wenas we ran into Jerry and Sandy Converse of Grand Coulee,
> who at that point on birded with us in the Wenas vicinity, then led us to
> Robinson Canyon, west of Ellensburg, after my mother was disappointed in
> finding only 2 dragonflies with one along N.Fork of Wenas Creek, and one at
> Lower Hardy Canyon, which surprised us as the weather was very warm with
> high temperatures in the low 90's on Sat. and Sunday, with occasional
> moderate to heavy wind in places, with increasing clouds late Sunday,
> turning to mostly cloudy Monday AM, with rain west of Ellensburg along I-90
> to North Bend. At Wenas Camping area we encountered ALL the main summer
> residents including WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER, GRAY FLYCATCHER, BLACK-CHINNED
> HUMMINGBIRD,VEERY, and one PURPLE FINCH(uncommon and local on the east
> slope of the Cascades), but the first main highlight came when I owled
> along Dry Creek, west of the campground, from 8:45pm-1:30am, including
> walking time, on Sat. night, where I encountered 2 FLAMMULATED OWLS, and 1
> N.SAW-WHET OWL in appropriate habitat, along with calling C.POORWILLS. The
> next day(Sunday)we all started at Lower Hardy Canyon, where we observed 1
> singing LEAST FLYCATCHER in an aspen grove along Oak Creek, and 4 GRAY
> CATBIRDS, which are rather scarce in this area, with only single birds
> being seen by us in past years, so maybe there will be an expansion in the
> area. Other birds present included YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, LAZULI BUNTING,
> and PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER. We then headed towards Ellensburg, driving
> north through scenic Yakima River Canyon, with 2 TURKEY VULTURES, and
> several WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS overhead.. At the base of the Robinson
> Canyon, we ran into Michael Donahue of Seattle, who informed us of 2
> ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS, that had been seen near a beaver pond, further up
> the canyon, by another party, and a N.PYGMY OWL, that he and the other
> birding party observed also the same sight. We headed up the canyon, and
> encountered the calling N.PYGMY OWL at very close range, along with
> photographes taken. The bird appeared to be on territory, as we only saw
> one bird, which remained the rest of the day, and seen and heard the next
> day in the general vicinity. On Monday(today)my mother and the Converse's
> walked up the canyon, past the lower beaver pond, and observed 1
> ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER, that had just bathed in a pool of water, which I
> missed, until I searched the area, where the bird had last been seen, and
> encounter 2 birds, probably a pair, on a vegetated slope above the canyon.
> Several other notable species during our stay included: 2 PRAIRIE FALCONS,
> 2 WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS, a PURPLE FINCH family(of which I heard one bird
> singing),DUSKY,HAMMOND'S, and OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS, CALLIOPE
> HUMMINGBIRD, 1 HERMIT THRUSH, VEERY, 2 LEWIS' WOODPECKER, 1 GRAY CATBIRD, 1
> LINCOLN'S SPARROW, and fairly good numbers of warblers including:WILSON'S,
> YELLOW, MACGILLIVRAY'S, NASHVILLE, ORANGE-CROWNED, YELLOW-RUMPED, and
> TOWNSEND'S, in that order. On the way home at Easton along I-90, 4
> BAND-TAILED PIGEONS were observed, which are very scarce on the east slope
> of the Cascades Despite having basically NO dragonflies, the trip was
> rewarding on the birding scale, as well as running into several birders
> along the way, which is always a pleasure.
>
> Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
> GODWIT at worldnet.att.net

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