Hi tweets,
Decided to head up to the mountains north of Ellensburg in hopes of maybe finding finches or other winter birds being pushed down by the advancing winter conditions.
Finch wise I had two seperate flocks of GRAY-CROWNED ROSY FINCH, each 40-50 individuals. One on the Ellensburg side of the pass and one on the Wenatchee side of the pass both in meadows. In a meadow on the Ellensburg side, there were 6 PINE GROSBEAK. Did not note mile markers for these observations as these birds move around so much.
The main highlight was a GREAT-GRAY OWL on the edge of a meadow just before reaching Colockum pass coming from the Ellensburg side. The bird was sitting on top of a tree (fir of some kind) at the back of the meadow, the time was about 4:15 just as the light was beginning to fade for the day.
Also of note on Reecer Ck Rd earlier in the day was a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE in a flock of robins.

Scott Downes
downess at cwu.edu
Ellensburg WA