Subject: Okanogan weekend
Date: Jan 8 11:53:27 2002
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Netta and I went over to Okanogan County this last weekend (5-6 Jan) to see
how many redpoll flocks we could find and, of course, to try to make the
palest birds into Hoaries, as is the custom (just kidding). From the
invasion that is taking place, we expected to find the woods full of
redpolls. Instead, we saw *2* redpolls, in a House Finch flock in a yard
on the E Chewuch Road north of Winthrop, when we had just about given up
seeing any at all. The rest of the two days were redpoll-free. The random
luck of birding, I suppose. We saw two small flocks of Pine Grosbeaks, one
small flock of Bohemian Waxwings. I suspect we saw fewer birds than others
have seen there recently because we spent most of our time out in the
countryside rather than hanging around the towns.

We did drive through the side roads of Winthrop and Twisp checking out bird
feeders (hoping to find the redpoll mother lode), and we were somewhat
surprised to find most of the feeders empty. A few feeders were seed-rich
but bird-free, and a few other feeders had both seeds and birds. But it
underscored strongly my belief that it is ridiculous to count the amount of
bird feeders and bird seed sold and use that as a statistic to show the
number of birders in North America ("more than sports fans" is one claim)!
The vast majority of people who buy bird feeders and bird seed aren't
birders, I would say, and it was quite obvious that many people were home
in the houses at which there were feeders but nothing in them.
Nevertheless, in the depths of winter, it's clear that most birds are
hanging around where we have modified the environment, furnishing food in
the form of fruit trees, garbage, bird seed, spilled grain, etc., and many
of them might not be present in these areas if they were 100% natural.
Ravens and Black-capped Chickadees were the dominant birds away from the
towns, and in most places we stopped there were no birds to be seen or
heard. We saw surprisingly few Northern Shrikes, but they included 4 on
hwy 17 east of Bridgeport, apparently a good area for them. We did see
substantial numbers of Bald Eagles along all the rivers, even the smaller
ones. Needless to say, we looked for Hawk and Great Gray owls until our
eyeballs froze. *They* should have been out in the boonies, even if the
redpolls weren't.

We had our best experience on the road between Fish Lake and hwy 97, north
of Omak. After spending some time in a nearly birdless Sinlahekin Valley,
we were driving back on this road, and a hawk shot across the road like a
rocket, with wings closed. My mouth was still hanging open when it shot
back in the other direction, this time with a bird in its claws. It was a
Prairie Falcon, and it had taken either a solitaire (see below) or a Pine
Grosbeak, both of which were present in the riparian ribbon. As it passed,
in a chorus of "oh, wow," it got even better, as an adult Northern Goshawk
came up out of the trees chasing after it, but the falcon left the
accipiter in the dust and disappeared over a nearby ridge. The goshawk
circled and landed on a fence post right in front of us, and I got the
first look ever in my life of birding at an adult goshawk at rest. I have
seen perhaps 10 adults in my life, always before in flight, and usually a
quick look, so this was thrilling to say the least. What a spectacular
bird! It finally took off and flew over the same ridge, but not before
offering us wonderful views. The frosting on the cake was an immature of
the same species in a tree east of Winthrop later that afternoon, only the
third immature I had ever seen at rest, and another good look at it. That
bird flew right over our heads and disappeared into another tree grove.

The biggest surprise to me was the number of Townsend's Solitaires. We saw
one in Riverside on 1/5, 4 (FOUR) on the road between Fish Lake and US 97
on the same day, and one in Twisp and one in Brewster on 1/6. I knew they
wintered in eastern WA but had never seen so many on one trip. Most of
them were perched high at the top of a leafless cottonwood or other
deciduous tree, but one was on a wire and one was on a mullein way out in
the sagebrush. They certainly acted like flycatchers, yet there couldn't
have been flying insects out there. They must be eating fruit, but I don't
know what kind. I suppose there are rose hips and still some hawthorn
fruits, not sure what else would last into the winter. Some of them were
in towns, with their planted fruit trees, but others were well away from
human influence and presumably fed on wild fruits. Solitaires often feed
on juniper berries during winter, but there aren't any junipers around
there. I can only assume that as we saw 7 of them, there must have been
dozens in the area.

I was also fascinated to see how abundant Eared Grebes were on Soap Lake on
1/6 (probably hundreds, from the number we could see from one pull-off). I
didn't realize they wintered commonly anywhere in eastern WA, but that's
obviously the place for them. I don't think any field guide shows them
wintering east of the Cascades. Finally, we were surprised at how few
gulls we saw all along the Columbia River. Just a few Ring-billed and
Herring here and there, no concentrations at all. The Ring-bills were all
in mall parking lots near the river rather than on the river itself.

So it was a disappointing trip from the standpoint of redpolls, but very
neat to see birds in winter, and the area around Winthrop was indeed a
winter wonderland, with deer absolutely everywhere, roaming through the
snowy city streets, sharing livestock food, and out in open country nestled
into the snow with just their head showing or feeding on bitterbrush twigs
or buds. We watched a river otter feeding in Blue Lake (Sinlahekin), going
into holes in the ice and popping back up many seconds later, like a
freshwater seal. The lake was covered with such holes, all of which were
otter-made, we assumed. We also watched 3 eastern fox squirrels feeding on
twig bark in a big cottonwood in Okanogan; all were in one tree, and we
scrutinized many similar trees and saw no others. There were a number of
lengthy drives where we saw more mammals than birds!

No dragonflies to report, though.

Dennis

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html