It looks like Kerry saw a better variety of birds at Toppenish than
Natalie and I managed last weekend. We visited the Toppenish NWR last
Saturday around 6 p.m., at the tail end of a warm day. First, I have been
meaning to post a quick warning about ticks at Toppenish. We walked the
mowed trail of sorts that winds along the creek throught the fields near
the refuge office, and since we hadn't sprayed our legs with insect
repellent before starting the walk, it didn't take long before we were
whisking ticks off our legs. Not a pleasant experience...

The only birds I could add from Kerry's list are a pair of Great Horned
Owl, mother and young from what we could make out, that seem to be
spending a lot of time in the trees around the refuge office. We startled
the owls out of a pine tree along the road and they flew into the other
trees nearer to the office. The adult owl moved to the outer edge of the
trees around the refuge office, but the juvenile stayed for the time we
were at the site. We also found owl pellets under one of the trees near
the refuge office.

The other interesting sight was two pair of California Quail with their
young. The first were along the north side of the gravel road to the
office and when we walked closer they started to run into the grass with
about 10 small quail in close pursuit behind them. A bit closer to the
parking lot on our way back to the car for some quality tick removal time
we saw another pair of quail fly into a tree along the south side of the
gravel road, and they had 10 or more young of their own, although these
quail were older and flew off as we approached.

--
Rob McNair-Huff <mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com>
White Rabbit Publishing <http://www.whiterabbits.com>
Publisher of Mac Net Journal <http://www.whiterabbits.com/MacNetJournal>
The Equinox Project <http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html>
Co-author of Insiders Guide to the Olympic Peninsula

>This report was mailed for Kerry Turley by http://birdnotes.net
>
>Date: July 28, 2002
>Location: Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge, Yakima County, Washington
>
>Low temperature: 80 degrees fahrenheit High temperature: 90 degrees
fahrenheit
>Prevailing wind speed: 1-5 km/h
>Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 0%
>Precipitation: none
>
>I spent a couple of hours at the refuge today, mostly around the
>headquarters area and first pond North of the HQ. Interestingly the
>coyotes were singing around 8:00AM this morning, I usually only hear
>them in the early hours or at dusk. The heat has not diminished the
>population of ticks at all, in fact they seem to be thriving on it.
>Bird activity was not bad for it being the time of the "July
>duldrums". No shore bird activity to note as yet, mainly for a lack
>of open mud. Notes on individual birds will follow.
>
>Birds seen (in taxonomic order):
>
>Pied-billed Grebe [1]
>American White Pelican [2]
>American Bittern [3]
>Great Blue Heron [4]
>Black-crowned Night-Heron [5]
>Canada Goose
>Mallard
>Northern Shoveler
>Northern Harrier
>Red-tailed Hawk
>American Kestrel
>California Quail
>American Coot
>Killdeer
>Spotted Sandpiper [6]
>Rock Dove
>Mourning Dove
>Common Nighthawk
>Western Wood-Pewee
>Willow Flycatcher
>Western Kingbird
>Eastern Kingbird
>Loggerhead Shrike
>Black-billed Magpie
>Tree Swallow
>Bank Swallow
>Cliff Swallow
>Bewick's Wren
>Marsh Wren
>American Robin
>European Starling
>Common Yellowthroat
>Song Sparrow
>Red-winged Blackbird
>Yellow-headed Blackbird
>House Finch
>American Goldfinch
>
>Footnotes:
>
>[1] Around 6 adults with lots of young
>[2] 4 adults - no immatures
>[3] 1 flushed from North pond
>[4] Large goups of these, one group had 18 birds in it. This is the
> largest gathering I've seen other than around a Heronry.
>[5] 1 flushed from Toppenish creek at the headquarters bridge.
>[6] one with one chick
>
>Total number of species seen: 37
>
>