Greetings All-

Tim Perkin's, Michael Dossett, Justin Rink and myself spent Thursday through
Saturday (3-5) in Eastern Washington birding various places, concentrating
in Okanogan and Douglas Counties, with a few stops in between.

On the 3rd, our first stop after day break was in Cle Elum. No Redpolls
were seen, but we did encounter a large group fo Pine Grosbeaks along 3rd
street, about 35 in the area, mostly congregating in a Mountain Ash eating
the berries, and a nearby Snowberry bush. It was amazing to get so close to
the birds. They showed no fear towards us and it was pretty sweet to get
real close studies. Dossett was able to get his camera within range of them
pecking at it, pretty much. Also along 3rd street were a couple of of Cedar
Waxwings, and several Bohemian Waxwings in the Mountain Ash aswell.

We then headed to the Ellensburg Airport, where we immediately had 16 GRAY
PARTRIDGE feeding at the end of Airport Road.

We scanned the Columbia River and the Banks Lakes for unusual waterfowl,
finding nothing irregular. (But a Pac. Loon was nice). On the eastern end
of the Waterville Plataeu, a Gyrfalcon flew over the car to everyone's
delight, but mine. (I was paying attention to the road and missed it).
We had several Northern Shrikes on the plataeu, and a few small flocks of
Horned Larks, and some C. Redpolls in with a group of House Finch.
We tried for the Sharp-tailed Grouse at Foster Creek a few times that
evening without success. At Bridgeport State Park, the highlight was a
couple of American Tree Sparrows. Then it was off to Omak for the night.

Jan 4th.
We started early at the Highland Snow Park near Havillah for some owling.
We were skunked on the owls, and pretty much everything else for the
morning. The fog was so dense that you couldn't see more than 15 feet in
front of you. We heard many redpolls flitting about Tonasket-Havillah road,
viewing only a couple perched along the road. I was surprised to not have
any Gray-crowned Rosy Finch along this road. Past two years I've at least
seen 150 or so along this road.
We then drove up to Chesaw, where right outside of town we had a few
White-winged Crossbills. I was very happy as this was my biggest nemesis
bird for Washington. (Now I just need the Ptarmigan and the pseudo-species
Cordilleran Fly for breeding birds in WA)
We also had several redpolls at this spot flying over, and a few calling
Pine Grosbeaks.
Just as we were heading out of Tonasket, before the Cemetary, we encounted a
very large flock, ca: 200 Common Redpolls working some birch trees. We just
got our scopes out and were going to sort through the flock in attempt to
find a Hoary, when of course, a Sharp-shinned Hawk came down and scattered
the flock causing them to fly over a ridge. A few Gray Partridge then
proceeded to cross the road for nice looks. Birding slowed down
dramatically after that. Until we got to Twisp, and Dave Dunn's place. He
graciosly invited us in to observe the Yellow-throated Warbler and his flock
of Common Redpolls that visited his feeders. It was neat to see a Redpoll
and the Warbler sitting side by side. He told us of a possible Hoary
Redpoll visiting his feeders, but we couldn't find anything there that night
that looked Hoaryish, so we decided to try and take another look in the
morning.

Jan 5th,
Back at Dave's house, we observed all the regular feeding visitors. No
Hoary Redpoll, but there was one light Common with all white undertail
coverts, thouch still clearly a Common.
Dave told us of a Northern Hawk Owl that was reported along Texas Creek Road
south of Twisp near Carlton. We checked the road all the way up and back
down without finding one unfortunately. We birded the Methow River a bit,
finding all the regular ducks and such, then to Cameron Lake Road. We had
NOTHING on Cameron Lake Road, save a few Black-billed Magpies. Then again
we did not have any Sharp-tailed Grouse at Foster Creek, putting me
personally at 1 for about 10 in attempts for the Grouse there. Oh well. We
then headed for home, with the last highlight being a few groups of Snow
Buntings north of Waterville, on the Plataeu.

January 6th.
Just Justin and myself this day. After a good night sleep at home, we went
to Kent for the Sapsucker. We arrived at the spot at 7:30 and just waited
around. at about 7:45, we had a Sapsucker fly into a Cedar down the road a
bit from the house. We inspeced and found the Sapsucker, clearly a
Red-breasted. Then another Sapsucker flew out of the cedar and into the
trees in front of the yard that it has frequented. This time it was the
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

I don't see why there was any controversey over this bird, other than the
fact that people were being cautious since YBSA isn't really a bird that
alot of people have experience with around here (including myself). But I,
nor Justin saw nothing on the bird that looked funny or odd for a pure YBSA.
Justin, visiting from Illinois has plenty of experience with this species
and said it looked pretty straight-forward to him. This was just before
8:00AM. Though I found it funny that everyone else was looking at the
Yellow-belly, while Justin went over and observed the Red-breasted ;-) That
was about all of our birding for that day, we went to my mom's fiance's
place in Auburn to get some breakfast and a nap before I had to take Justin
to the airport, and then head back to Olympia to get to work last night
(which is why I'm posting this today).
bout it.
cheers and good birding
Ryan



----Ryan Shaw
----Lacey, Washington
----rtshaw80 at hotmail.com
----(360) 491-1084
----AIM: RTShaw80

----------This machine will not communicate,
---These thoughts and the strain I am under,
------------Be a world child, form a circle,
---------------------Before we all go under,
-------------------------And fade out again
~Radiohead~


_________________________________________________________________
Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com