There have already been a few bird sightings reported from the weekend
Crane Festival period. I have asked all of the field trip leaders to send
me their individual lists, which I will make available when I have them all
turned in. To be brief, we had a great turnout for the Festival, maybe
more than we were able to handle as the crane viewing busses all filled.
Those of you who came over from the west side of the Cascades haven't yet
learned to leave the rain behind, and it was a little wet (for us) Sunday
morning, but we had some great birding on the specialized tours which
included sage grouse, snow buntings, rosy finches, owls, white-fronted
geese, prairie falcons, curlews, sage sparrow, stilts and lots of the early
songbird migrants.

We have cranes roosting in Marsh Unit 1 of Columbia NWR (530 this morning)
which I would like to give a little seclusion to. This area is officially
open to walk-in access, but roost means rest, and if the cranes are being
pushed out by people we will close the area. They are using the west pond
and dike road south of the large northern impoundment. The white-fronted
geese (at least 17 today) also are loafing in this area. They can be
viewed with spotting scopes from the road that comes down the hill at the
east end of the unit. Please don't go beyond where the eastern ponds
begin.

Following that same road back east passing Scabrock Lakes (the main refuge
gravel road) you can continue east rather than turning north and drive onto
the Soda Lake dam, viewing Migraine Lake to the south. This morning there
was great light for viewing, and I found 5 male Eurasian Wigeon, which is
likely a record count for Grant County as a whole.

Randy Hill
Columbia NWR
Othello