Hi Tweets

I had one free day for birding and I decided to try my luck east of the
mountains yesterday.

Changing my plans at the last second, I started the morning at the TrendWest
property at the Roslyn/Salmon La Sac exit off I-90. Brian Bell had mentioned
this location to me last week, and at 5:50 a.m. as I passed the exit, I
suddenly decided to check it out.

It was easy to find - take the exit and head north. Within a hundred yards or
so of the freeway there's a gravel road off to the left which heads up to the
northwest. There is a sign there indicating that the land is owned by
TrendWest Resorts that gives the rules for public use.

This is a great spot! The habitat varies from Doug-fir to Ponderosa, some
decent second growth, some logged (though not clear-cut on the recent cuts),
large areas of scrub, large areas clear-cut and planted in either fir or pine,
some grasslands, plus the cottonwood riverbottom. There are several side-roads
that I did not check out, so there's plenty of space for birding.

I stopped first at about the high-spot on the main gravel road, perhaps a mile
from the start, then stopped at a logged site about a half mile further on.
After that, I continued a couple of miles to a place where you can walk down to
the river. The main gravel road runs at least 5 miles, I'd guess, before it
exits the TrendWest property and connects with Forest Service roads.

Between 6:00 and 10:00 I had 50 species in this area including 9 warblers.
Highlights included:

Red-breasted Sapsucker
Hairy Woodpecker
Rufous Hummingbird - at first stop
Calliope Hummingbird - abundant
Cassin's Vireo - many
Warbling Vireo - several
Hermit Thrush - heard several
Townsend's Solitaire - 1
House Wren
Mountain Chickadee ( and CBCH)
Black-throated Gray Warbler - abundant
Yellow-rumped Warbler - abundant (Aud)
Nashville Warbler - abundant
Orange-crowned Warbler - several
MacGillivray's Warbler - great looks
Townsend's Warbler - several
Hermit Warbler (x Townsend's) - 1 female
Wilson's Warbler - many
Yellow Warbler - a couple near river
Lincoln's Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Western Tanager - 3
Black-headed Grosbeak - 3

As you can see, there were a mix of "eastside" and "westside" species, which
makes it a good place to start a Kittitas Big Day. As I said, I had 50
species, but it was also interesting to note what I didn't have there - no
ducks, no starlings, no swallows, no bluebirds, no blackbirds, no crows. Thus,
simply driving to Ellensburg afterwards brought my day total to over 70. That
included a stop on the Cle Elum - Ellensburg Rd. at the Teanaway River
crossing, where I picked up my 10th warbler, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, as well as
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH and AMERICAN DIPPER (under the bridge).

I think I could easily have hit 100 species in Kittitas County yesterday, but I
decided to take the road to Wenas instead (besides really liking the road, I
had an insane idea of getting Yellow-breasted Chat at Hardy Canyon for my 11th
warbler, but it was not to be). Umtanum road was in fine condition. I did not
take Audubon Road (leading to the campground) beyond the first mile, so I don't
know what condition it is in. I went as far as Hardy Canyon where I walked in.
Highlights along the way were:

Lewis's Woodpecker
Ruffed Grouse - lower Hardy Canyon
Common Snipe - lower Hardy Canyon
Mountain Bluebird - abundant in Kittitas Co.
Western Bluebird - abundant in Yakima Co.
Sage Thrasher
Western Kingbird (no Easterns)
Brewer's Sparrow
Vesper's Sparrow
Bullock's Oriole - just inside Yakima Co.

At 4:15, I hustled back to my car from the (very dry) meadow at lower Hardy
Canyon and drove straight through to the WOS meeting where Martin Muller gave a
VERY interesting talk on Pied-billed Grebe behavior.

A great day of birds and birding!

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== hummer at isomedia.com