Tweeters,

Yesterday (15 October), Denny Granstrand and myself observed two new species
of
gulls for the Yakima County list at Priest Rapids Lake on the Columbia
River.

On arriving at the southwest corner of the lake, while scoping a distant
flock of hundreds of waterbirds of the "Milfoil Guild": Pied-billed Grebes,
American Coots, American Wigeons, and Redheads - all species which gorge on
the introduced weedy milfoil, a water plant, we noticed a gull swimming
amongst them. Shortly, it took flight. We initially took it to be an
immature Bonaparte's
Gull. After studying it a bit, I suggested we might have a Black-legged
Kittiwake. Fortunately, the bird stayed in the area, alternating between
short flights and periods of swimming about on the lake. Soon it was
apparent we had a bona fide Black-legged Kittiwake: it had the black carpal
bar that a Bonaparte's Gull sports, but had a gleaming white triangle on the
outer aft part of the wing, including the secondaries, contrasting with a
black triangle on the leading aspect of the wing (primaries 1-5, more or
less). Its tail was slightly forked and had a black trailing edge. While
swimming, we clearly noted the blackish "shoulder" smudge.

We later discussed the origin of fall kittiwakes in interior North America;
I assumed this was a southward fall dispersal from its high Arctic breeding
grounds, similar to the well-documented late fall migration of other gull
species of the Arctic: Thayer's Iceland, Glaucous, Sabine's, and Ross's, not
to mention Arctic Tern, all of which occur in the interior of the continent
in varying numbers, from casual to fairly regular in occurrence (records of
all or some of these species from a number of interior North America
provinces such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Idaho, Montana, and
Colorado, to mention a few). Denny asked why this gull might not have
wandered up the Columbia from the west, as presumably did the several
Western Gulls (one nice adult and several 1st-year) and more numerous
Glaucous-winged and Glaucous X
Western intergrades ("Olympic") Gulls. Heermann's Gulls have also wandered
upriver at tis time of year. I guess we don't know for certain the origin of
this kittiwake, but
I would wager this was an individual that instead of following a coastal
route south in the fall, took "the less travelled interior route," adding a
whole lot of spice to our birding day.

In the early afternoon, we chanced upon an adult Thayer's Gull swimming near
the shore on the west side of Priest Rapids Lake, another county first. This
was gull species # 7 for the day, undoubtedly a record for this usually
gull-impoverished county. Thayer's are rare but regular in the Tri Cities
region of south-central Washington in late fall and winter. This record was
thus overdue.

The tally along the Yakima County portion of Priest Rapids Lake:

Common Loon - 10+
Pied-billed Grebe - 15
Horned Grebe - 5
Red-necked Grebe - 7, including one immature still showing facial stripes
Western Grebe - 35
American White Pelican - 3, on the Grant County side
Double-crested Cormorant - 3
Great Blue Heron - 3
Tundra Swan - 2, first of the fall here
Greater White-fronted Goose - 3
Canada Goose - 100
Green-winged Teal - 15
Mallard - 150
Northern Shoveler - 4
Gadwall - 100+
American Wigeon - 750+
Redhead - 250
Ring-necked Duck - 25
Greater Scaup - 50
Lesser Scaup - 100
Scaup, sp. - 150
Common Merganser - 5, below dam
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 2
Prairie Falcon - 1, beautiful...soared low right over us!
American Coot - 1800+
Killdeer - 4
Ring-billed Gull - 100+, mostly on gravel bars snatching insects on the
cobbles
California Gull - 10, mostly gone
Herring Gull - 50+, gamut of plumages
Thayer's Gull - 1 winter adult
Western Gull - 1 adult, 3 1st-year, below dam
Glaucous-winged Gull - 5 adults, 15 1st-year, a couple 2nd-year, all below
dam
Black-legged Kittiwake - 1 1st-year
Northern (Red-shafted ) Flicker - 10+
Horned Lark - 15
Black-billed Magpie - 5
Common Raven - 5
Rock Wren - 5
Canyon Wren - 3
Marsh Wren - 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 5, in shrubby lakeside Coyote Willows
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2
Varied Thrush - 1
American Pipit - 2
European Starling - 10
Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warbler - 15, mostly below dam in afternoon,
flycatching amongst swarms of flies
Savannah Sparrow - 1
Song Sparrow - 5
White-crowned Sparrow - 10
Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco -10
Western Meadowlark - 2
House Finch - 65
American Goldfinch - 10

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net