Tweets,
I just returned from a weekend trip that Ryan SHaw and I took to the
Okanogan. Below are the highlights.
Our first good sighting was a dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK sitting along I-90
just east of Vantage on Friday morning. We then headed up onto the WAterville
Plateau where we ran into Hundreds of HORNED LARK and searching through them
produced 1 female SNOW BUNTING. There was also about a dozen GRAY PARTRIDGE
on the hillside.
We stayed in Okanogan overnight and headed north at 6:30 AM. Headed up the
Tonasket-Havillah road Ryan spotted a falcon sitting on a telephone pole
along the road. This was about 5 miles up the road. Luckily the light was
just enough that we could tell it was a adult GRAY-PHASE GRYFALCON! An
awesome bird to begin a day with. With an omen like this what would be the
second and third bird? Well nothing short of 150 SNOW BUNTINGS and 150
GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCHES feeding on a grain spill about 2 miles before the
ski area! They allowed very close views.
Next we headed up the HIghlands Sno-Park area where we were greeted by 4-5
MT. CHICKADEE, 2 GRAY JAY and 1 CLARK's NUTCRACKER. Coming back down the road
at the junction with Havillah Rd. I spied a bird sitting in the top of a tree
that turned out to be a PINE GROSBEAK. Nearby was a WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER
feeding. We then headed past the ski area only to find another 100 SNOW
BUNTINGS in a tree about 200 yards past the lifts.
We found 1 N. PYGMY OWL sitting on a wire above the road on Pointac Ridge RD.
Then in the road next to Little Beaver Lk. was 25-30 COMMON REDPOLL. We tried
to improve on the day by looking for G.G. Owl and B. Waxwing but no luck.
Raptor wise yesterday we had 2 Dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, 3 DARK-MORPH
RED-TAILED HAWK, 1 HARLAN's HAWK near chesaw in addition to the other
roughies, reds and Bald Eagles.
This morning we made our first stop at Foster Creek and searched for
Sharp-tailed Grouse with no luck. We then headed up Cameron Lake road where
we had 1 HARLAN'S RED-TAIL at the beginning of the road, a TREE SPARROW and 1
GRAY-PHASED GRYFALCON along the road near Duley Lake. Along HWY.97 just south
of Cameron Lake RD. we had 1 PRAIRE FALCON flying.
Next we stopped at Bridgeport St. Park. Near the gate there was 1 TOWNSEND'S
SOLITAIRE. We checked the trees in the campground for owls. That produced 1
LONG-EARED OWL, 1 BARN OWL and 1 GREAT-HORNED that was just sitting out in
the open. We also saw several TREE SPARROWS at the feeder near the Ranger's
residence.
At Dry Falls overlook we had 1 CHUKAR and 1 ROCK WREN. We looked for the
Snowies at Moses Lake with no luck.
What was our biggest miss? Bohemain Waxwing. We looked in every Orchard and
town with Mt. Ash berries including ELLENSBURG with no luck. I can hardly
call anything a miss after luck a great trip.