A group of 20 from Tahoma Aud birded Okanagan & Douglas cos. feb. 16-18.
Highlights included, 1 prairie along hwy97 so. of orondo, 2 snow bunt-
ings along slusser rd. w/horned larks, a flyover adult goshawk at La-
moine while looking for long eared owls, and a snowy owl near withrow.
There were 6 c. redpolls in Withrow, tree sparrows in 2 locations, slus-
ser rd (2), 13th & Heritage (6-8), another prairie was seen no. of with-
row on power poles. On the 17th, looked for sharp-tailed grouse along
foster ck., none, but had an early morning golden eagle. Cameron lk.
rd. was fairly quiet, only a great horned owl, snow bunting, and red
crossbills. Looks like a burn went through the area since last year.
Headed for Havillah. Not much activity until along Kipling rd., flush-
ed a bird out of the house along the rd. near muskrat lk. Expected it
to be a great horned owl, cursory id. was a gyrfalcon, but the bird flew
into a tall doug. fir. Not a grey morph gyr but an adult goshawk. There
were about 20 c. redpolls and 6 Bohemian waxwings along chesaw-oroville
rd. Heading up Molson summit rd. a flock of 150 c. redpolls. Up to
Bolster a pygmy owl was in the water birch. Not many birds from chesaw
to wauconda and into tonasket. On the 18th headed to Twisp, in down-
town had 15 pine grosbeaks, 1 bohemian waxwing, 2 townsend solitaires,
13 turkeys and a sharpie. Winthrop next, another solitaire, 20 c. red-
polls and up chewack rd. 6-8 each pygmy and whitebreasted nuthatches.
White-breasted along bridge on no. end of winthrop, with 2 more pygmys
at so. bridge while looking and finding a dipper. Finished up with 2
golden eagles over lk. pateros on trip back, with a female tiaga merlin
into cle elum. 13 pine grosbeaks were also in cle elum on 5th st. and
2 in s. cle elum along 4th st.

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