...................Came back last week from an 11 day sightseeing trip
through NE Oregon.......The Dalles---blue Mt. Scenic Byway---Elkhorn
Scenic Byway through the gold mining country,---through Anthony Lakes
and the Elkhorn Mts.---through Baker City and down to Hells
Canyon---north on the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, on the Wallowa
Mts---past Hells Canyon overlooks and on to Wallowa Lake and
Joseph---through historic LaGrande and the Blue Mt. covered wagon (Ore.
Trail) and stagecoach trails. The scenery is 'mind boggling' and the
history is rich---which was the main focus of my travels. Didn't do any
extensive birding other than an afternoon hiking the Ladd Marsh State
Wildlife Refuge near LaGrande---providing a nice sighting of a
light-phase Swainson's Hawk;: Calif. Quail; Avocets; and other Sparrows
and birds like seen locally. Mountain Bluebirds, and a very loud but
unseen woodpecker at Hat Point---Clark's Nutcrackers and many small
'4-legged' creatures on Mt. Howard---Black-billed Magpies; 1 Loggerhead
Shrike; Golden Eagle; Lazali Buntings; and Mt. Quail around the
sagebrush lands of Baker City area---Chipping Sparrows near Pendleton;
and White Pelicans by Boardman---some of the birds less likely to be
seen at this time of the year in the lowland wet side of the Cascades.
Lots of Western Meadowlarks , but seen here also. "Billions" of
Red-winged Blackbirds.

..................Last weekend at Long Beach Peninsula-----Lots of
Western Sandpipers on the ocean beaches with a good number of
Semipalmated Plovers mingling with them. Didn't seen any Short-billed
Dowitchers, though I expect them to be appearing soon. Lots of Caspian
Terns, and Killdeer--2 Bald Eagles, and....an Osprey sitting on a nest
at the top of a tall Sitka Spruce at an inland lake.Zillions of
Cormorants in long straggling lines( Brandt's Cormorants???) headed
north along the beach along with some smaller black seabirds that
couldn't be ID'ed with just the binos.
..................Then there was the Lincoln's Sparrow that that gave me
a wonderful concert at a place at the south end of Willapa Bay. Such are
the "simpler pleasures" of life.

...................Cheers!!!!!!
Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash.
gerald at e-z.net