Arrived at the Hawk Owl site, found Converses and party already
on station. We worked the area until 12 noon, I guess it really does
comes every other day!
We had a Northern Shrike come in, also a Northern Pigmy Owl,
Cooper's Hawk and in the general area we found 1 Spotted Towhee, 1
Evening Grosbeak, 1 Varied Thrush and several Cedar Waxwings. Also 1
Downy Woodpecker and a number of Flickers. Not sure if we had
numerous Red-tailed Hawks or the same 2 kept moving around the area.
Giving up on the Hawk Owl, we decided to head for home via
northern Douglas County and the Waterville plateau. In McNeil Canyon
the fog was quite thick, we found 1 Bohemian Waxwing in the bush
beside the Highway, we don't think he could see to fly. Near
Mansfield we found one more Northern Shrike, one very dark morph
Rough-legged Hawk and another 8 normal looking ones before we left
Douglas County.
Also along the road we began to see numerous flocks of Horned
Larks, the largest more than 2000. At milepost 105 on Highway 17, the
best find of the day, 5 Snow Buntings in a flock of about 500 Horned
Larks. Snow Bunting was a new state lister for us, number 1 in our
goal of 10 new state birds for the year 2000.
The Waterville Plateau with it's light covering of snow and the
low clouds made one think they were in the Asian Steppes. It is quite
a marvelous state we bird in.
Larry & Jacque Goodhew from Walla Walla