Bird Yakkers,

Today Ellen and I birded the Yakima County side of Priest Rapids Lake. We
had several interesting observations:

Below the dam on a gravel bar was a collection of 70+ gulls gathered around
~ 15 dead salmon (either spawned or remains of human fishing activity, if
so, they're wasting a bunch of biomass). The number of Glaucous-winged and
"Olympic" Gulls was unprecedented in my experience for Priest Rapids. There
were also a number of Herring Gulls, several immature Californias and one
1st-year Thayer's.

During the afternoon, we had wonderful scope views of a White-winged Scoter,
nicely depicted in Sibley as a "juvenile/1st winter." It was loafing about
with a large number of coots just offshore about a mile north of the dam.

Though it was a crisp 22 F this morning as we left Moxee, the sunshine and
calm encountered while hiking around Borden Springs at the north edge of the
county really warmed us up; we actually got hot! From the slopes in this
area, we watched in awe as Tundra Swans whistling their sweet notes flew
several hundred feet above the river on their journey south.

We also took some time out from birding and ascended 1000' up Umtanum Ridge
not far northwest of the dam. While there were no birds to observe on this
steep ascent, there was much to see: wonderful native grasses alternating
with rigid sagebrush communities. We also had good views east down into the
adjacent ravine which is filled with live Rocky Mountain Junipers. As
virtually all junipers along this slope were burned and mostly killed in the
August 1996 fire which swept over 55,000 acres of the training center (the
result of live ammo firing in the summer drought - smart move, huh?), I was
surprised why the junipers in this gulch appeared to escape the fire. I
concluded the extensive areas of lithosol on the surrounding steep slopes
meant the fire never reached this ravine because of the lack of fuels. The
resulting mosaic of burned and unburned terrain is probably less common in
the Columbia Basin than historically, because of the cheatgrass invasion,
which tends carpet the landscape, leading to fires burning more areal extent
than formerly. That theYakima Training Center still has extensive areas of
vegetation communities still more or less intact makes this 340,000 acre
site a critically important representative of the shrub-steppe zone
inWashington.

Bird species noted:

Common Loon - 7
Pied-billed Grebe - 20
Horned Grebe - 10
Red-necked Grebe - 1
Eared Grebe - 1
Western Grebe - 15
Double-crested Cormorant - 7
Great Blue Heron - 2
Tundra Swan - 25
Canada Goose - 150
Green-winged Teal - 20, all below the dam
Mallard - 250
Northern Pintail - 1
Gadwall - 50
American Wigeon - 1,500
Canvasback - 200
Redhead - 1,000
Ring-necked Duck - 100
Greater Scaup - 50
Lesser Scaup - 25
Scaup sp. - 100
White-winged Scoter - 1
Common Goldeneye - 25
Bufflehead - 30
Hooded Merganser - 1
Common Merganser - 10
Ruddy Duck - 1
Bald Eagle - 4, all immatures
Northern Harrier - 1+
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Prairie Falcon - 1
California Quail - 5
American Coot - 3,000+
Killdeer - 3, below dam
Ring-billed Gull - 10
California Gull - 3 immatures, 1 adult
Herring Gull - 25
Thayer's Gull - 1
Western Gull - 3, including 1 adult
Glaucous-wingedG ull - 35+
"Olympic" Gull - 15+, mostly 1st-year
Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker - 5
Say's Phoebe - slopes 200' above and northwest of dam. Rocky, dwarfish
shrub-steppe.
Black-billed Magpie - 15
Common Raven - 7
Rock Wren - 8
Canyon Wren - 4
Marsh Wren - 5, all at Borden Springs
American Robin - 2
Loggerhead Shrike - 1, carefully studied
Spotted Towhee - 1
Song Sparrow - 15
Lincoln's Sparrow - 2
White-crowned Sparrow - 5
Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco - 25
Red-winged Blackbird - 5
House Finch - 50+, especially attracted to Scotch Thistlee
American Goldfinch - 20


Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net