My wife and I went to Wenatchee for the weekend. I was hoping to be able to
get away and do some birding, if time permitted. I was excited to see both
the YTW and the Sharp-tailed Grouse. I planned ahead! I E-mailed Patrick for
the directions to the STG and had copied the posts for the YTW location. I
was just about to Issaquah when I looked at my wife with this terrible
feeling that my notes were still on the kitchen counter, which she confirmed,
oh well. I was able to sneak away at 6:00 A.M. Sunday morning with our
friends daughter for a day of birding and relying on my memory to get us
there. Being 57, relying on your memory is probably not the best thing to do
when you are after rare birds. Reaching Bridgeport and not having a clue
where to go, I stopped at the Texaco station and bought my fourth Delorme for
Washington. I think this has happened to me before! After studying the map
for a few minutes, I finally found Bridgeport Hill Road in small print off of
Denzelman Hill Road. Off we went, the first birds we encountered were 15 very
large dark forms in the top of a tree in a farmers yard. Both of us were
confused as to there identification. I had even suggested that maybe they
were tires that the farmer had stung up as a joke! Being 7:30 A.M. lighting
was still scarce. Then one of the forms moved and bellowed. No mistaking the
sound of a Peacock! On we went, next we encountered Bohemian Waxwings and a
Northern Shrike, both good finds, but the main reason we were here was for
the Grouse. After an hour and one half, I looked at the Delorme, this time in
bold print I found the correct Bridgeport Hill Road, about six miles away
from the road we were on. We arrived at the proper location and were rewarded
with two Sharp-tailed Grouse. These grouse were disturbed by a hunter and
flushed. I followed there flight south along Foster Creek until they
disappeared over a hill. We drove the area that I thought they might have
landed and we found a total of seven in the tops of approximately thirty foot
tall trees. We had great views, we left this area at 10:20 for Twisp.
Arriving in Twisp, I was hoping I would find birders standing around scoping
out the YTW. No luck. We stopped at the grocery store, figuring everyone in
Twisp would know where the warbler was being seen, no luck again! Next stop
the Real Estate office. Met a very helpful women that had heard of the
warbler. She got out the stack of last weeks newspapers trying to find the
article, which she did. We first stopped at Dave Dunn's home (I did remember
his unit number) and watched his feeders, which are attracting, Common
Redpolls, Pine Siskins, Goldfinches, Purple and House Finches mainly. Dave
gave us exact directions to Richard Murray's home. As we pulled up to
Richard's house, the YTW arrived, also. We had wonderful views for about ten
minutes. On the return to Wenatchee we counted 17 Bald Eagles along the
Methow River from Twisp to Peteros. This trip turned out to be one of my most
memorable ever, thanks Patrick for your help, to Dave Dunn for being so
gracious and to Richard Murray for letting us invade his privacy.

Toby Andrews