Subject: Vantage/Crab Creek field trip
Date: Feb 21 21:07:15 2000
From: Hal Opperman - halop at accessone.com


Today Dave Swayne and I birded from Kittitas to Vantage, down to
Wanapum Dam and Sentinel Gap, and across the river to Crab Creek near
Beverly and finally Frenchman Coulee, with a Seattle Audubon field
trip. This has been a near-annual event on or about the Presidents'
Day weekend for the last seven or eight years and we always seek the
same set of birds, finding around half of them on any given trip.
Those most especially sought are early-returning species. We have
never failed to find SAGE SPARROWS along the old Vantage highway in
Schnebly Coulee, at milemarker 21.3. This morning about five were
singing there on both sides of the road, sitting on sagebrush against
a background of snow. We also found SAY'S PHOEBES along Caribou Road
just south of the old Vantage highway, and at the spot in Gingko
State Park were the road goes down to the water, below the overlook.
But no luck on bluebirds. Other local specialties included ROCK WREN
(one heard at the Vantage overlook, a pair seen and heard at Sentinel
Gap), CANYON WREN (singing at Sentinel Gap), GOLDEN EAGLE (working
the sheer basalt cliffs at Sentinel Gap), and CHUKARS (along the road
above Wanapum Dam). We missed Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, which we find
only about one year in three, and Long-eared Owl, which we have never
previously failed to find roosting in the Russian-olives at the
Nunnally Lake access along Lower Crab Creek. A singing MARSH WREN at
that location was unusual for the place and date. A calling VIRGINIA
RAIL in the cattail marsh at the Frenchman Coulee exit also attests
to the mild winter in that part of the state.

We ran into Scott Downes and his friend Megan a couple of times, and
looked unsuccessfully for the American Tree Sparrow they found at
Vantage.

Has anyone checked out the numerous swans in the pools along the
south side of I-90 west of Ellensburg? At 70 mph no one in our party
was willing or able to identify the species.

Hal Opperman
Medina, Washington
mailto:halop at accessone.com