Took a day trip over the mountains on Saturday. Gusty, breezy conditions
most of the day made finding birds difficult. We saw no Sage Thrashers or
Sage sparrows. There were a few warblers at Gingko SP, 3 or 4 Nashvilles,
2-3 Yellow-rumps and 5-6 Ruby-Crowned Kinglets.
In the ponds along Dodson Rd. there were good numbers of Black Necked
Stilts, Cinn. Teal and Yellow-Headed Blackbirds. We had two Avocets in a
pond near the end of the rd near I-90. On the way to Potholes SP we had 4
Swainson's Hawks, 3 were dark morphs. At Potholes, there were fair numbers
of warblers. I found a tree containing 2 Nashvilles, an Orange-crowned, a
Yellow-rump and a spectacular male Townsend's. I was able to observe the
Nashvilles and orange-crowned from about 10 feet away in full sunlight
allowing good views of their orange crowns. Overall Nashvilles were
seemingly more common than Yellow-rumps. Good Birding

Mike Blue
Renton, Wa
miblu at u.washington.edu