Subject: Okanagan & Priest Rapids trip
Date: Feb 24 16:36:43 2000
From: Dan Lindsay - susandan2 at earthlink.net


Hi Tweeters!

I spent the last two days east of the mountains, with pretty outstanding
results. All told I had 51 species. I'll mention only the good stuff.

On the Tonasket-Havillah Road, about 7 miles from Tonasket, was a
magnificent gray Gyrfalcon. Further along there was a flock of Snow
Buntings on telephone wires, but I did not see any Rosy Finches. About two
dozen Bohemian Waxwings filled a tree a few miles east of Oroville on the
Oroville-Chesaw road. The weather was foggy and intermittently raining and
snowing, which limited viewing options.

Bridgeport State Park contributed Purple, Cassin's, and House Finches, all
in the same tree, making a textbook example for comparison. Too bad I had
no suitable camera!

I found Horned Larks on Hwy 17 north of Coulee City, and again on the Old
Vantage Highway about 5 miles east of Ellensburg. There were Sage Sparrows
at Gingko State Park and at Quilomene WRA. A Mountain Bluebird flew across
the highway just west of Vantage.

I missed the unusual loons at Priest Rapids, but did see a nice Peregrine at
the boat launch at the end of 26 SW off Hwy 243.

The most surprising thing to me was how many birds were singing! Spring is
truly early. The Sage Sparrows were in full voice; a Marsh Wren was
singing at Lower Crab Creek; there were vocal Meadowlarks virtually
everywhere I stopped the car; and a tree full of about 25 Red-Winged
Blackbirds were all in full voice along the Tonasket-Havillah Road -- not
exactly where I'd go if I were looking for Red-Wings.

There were not very many raptors in evidence, but they were widely
distributed by species: seven in all.

All in all, a fine couple of days!

Dan Lindsay
susandan2 at earthlink.net