I birded All day Monday the 29th with Stephanie Dosch mainly over in Eastern
Washington. We also birded the morning of the 29th with Charlie Wright. The
most amazing 11 year old birder I have ever seen in my life. He was calling
out singing Nashville Warblers and MacGillivray's Warblers while we were
driving by a riparian patch and telling me the differences between the songs,
and later on, he was just tearing it up by calling out every empid we
encountered. I know I didn't have had a clue between Dusky and Hammond's
Flycatcher when I was 11? After taking Steph back home Monday evening, I
went back over into Eastern Washington and camped out with Charlie and birded
with him for 2 more days, basically cleaning up on missed stuff from Monday.
There were many misses this year for me,notably I did not have any Common
Poorwills along Dry Creek Road, and I did not have a Dipper along the creek.
Also this year I only had 1 Catbird at Lower Hardy Canyon, while in 99 I had
6 individuals there. But again, it was still a nice trip, even though the
weather wasn't that great, with alot of clouds, the occasional shower, and
lots of wind and cold.
Very different feeling since we basically had the whole campground to
ourselves due to our late "weekend."
Today, Wednesday, I had a 6 Empidonax Flycatcher day, with Hammond's,
Pacific-slope, Least, Gray, Dusky, and Willow all being seen. I'm too tired
to even think about counting up my species list but here are all the
highlights:

KITTITAS COUNTY

COMMON LOON, 1 first spring bird on the Columbia River
SWAINSON'S HAWK - 1 soaring, Swauk Priairie
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD - 1 at Roslyn, several up Logging Road near Swauk Creek
RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER- 1 up logging road
CASSIN'S VIREO -1 bird at Roslyn, abundant in Douglas fir zones up Logging
Road new Swauk Creek.
CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE -Near Swauk Creek.
ROCK WREN - abundant in Vantage
CANYON WREN- 1 calling in Vantage
TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE - single bird up Logging Road
HERMIT THRUSH calling birds up Logging Road
WESTERN & MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD
SAGE THRASHER - bird singing on sage bush, Umtanum road.
BREWER'S SPARROW common throughout many counties in appropriate habitat.
PURPLE FINCH up Logging Road.

GRANT COUNTY

BLUE-WINGED TEAL & CINNAMON TEAL - good number of breeding birds along
Potholes Lakes
REDHEAD - abundant at Potholes
BLACK-NECKED STILT - several breeding birds at potholes
WILSON'S PHALAROPE - 8 birds at potholes
CALIFORNIA and RING-BILLED GULL - breeding birds at potholes
CASPIAN TERN - potholes
BURROWING OWL - Breeding pair along Frenchman Hills Road, Potholes.


YAKIMA COUNTY

RUFFED GROUSE - 1 red morph on side of road at Wenas Camp
GREAT HORNED OWL, 1 bird on Umtanum Road at 11:30PM
N. PYGMY OWL - 1 bird calling at Hardy Canyon, and Charlie had 2 more
calling in the campground at Wenas, after I fell asleep.
VAUX'S SWIFT - several at Wenas, Charlie is THE swift magnet.
WHITE-THROATED SWIFT - 2 flying over at Wenas Campground, Charlie's find again
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD - 2 at Wenas
BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD - 1 female at Wenas
RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER - 1 at Lower Hardy Canyon,
RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER - abundant in Wenas Campground.
LEWIS'S WOODPECKER - several birds at nest snag, Umtanum Road
LEAST FLYCATCHER - 1 at Wenas along Maloy Road where Andy reported it.
HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER, DUSKY FLYCATCHER - both species readily seen in both
Yakima and Kittitas Counties
GRAY FLYCATCHER - several birds in open ponderosa pine, birds hang low to the
ground, dropping their tails constantly.
WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER - about 5 birds found each day in the Wenas Campground
PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER - calling like mad along riparian zones along the
creeks.
WESTERN & EASTERN KINGBIRD - observed EAKI harrassing a WEKI several times.
MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE - most seen of the 3 species of chickadees over the
weekend.
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH - common in Ponderosa pine forests of Wenas
PYGMY NUTHATCH - found a nest up a trail at Wenas
VEERY - many singing at Wenas Creek
SWAINSON'S THRUSH - singing at Wenas Creek
GRAY CATBIRD - 1 bird at Lower Hardy Canyon, Wenas
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT - 2 birds calling at Hardy Canyon, new bird for state
for me.
CASSIN'S FINCH - most abundant finch in Wenas
RED CROSSBILL - several types encountered throughout the county.
EVENING GROSBEAK - flyovers at campground
BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK - everywhere!
LAZULI BUNTING - males singing in several locales.
BULLOCK'S ORIOLE - abundant at Lower Hardy Canyon
WESTERN TANAGER - abundant at scattered locations

THURSTON COUNTY

WILLOW FLYCATCHER - easily found calling at Nisqually NWR


Ryan Shaw
Lacey, WA
RTShaw80 at aol.com
http://hometown.aol.com//rtshaw80/index.html