Last Thurs. night I slept near Packwood Cem. up Central Ferry Canyon in
Douglas Co. Common Poorwills and Common Nighthawks were calling predawn and
then the Robins and Pewees began. It was frosty, but got up and birded my
way down the canyon out of the pines where the Sharp-tailed Grouse Reserve
is and sure enough there was a male grouse standing at the edge of the road
with his tail erect and I could see his neck feathers bulging. It was still
sort of dark so I put my binos on him and he turned out to be a Blue
Grouse---quite some distance to evergreens. This is my 2'nd time to have
seen Blue Grouse in this Canyon as Patrick Sullivan and Mark Houston were
with me when we kicked out one in the draw.

Right before getting back on pavement I heard a Least Flycatcher calling
non-stop near a row of planted Lombardy Poplars. This is a good bird for
Douglas Co.

I checked out FR 39 and found a lot of woodpecker activity just where FR 37
and FR 39 meet and north along FR 39. Lots of dying trees. It was very
cold up there and very little bird life. Yellow-rumped Warblers,
Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Gray Jays, a Cooper's Hawk, and 3 Clark's Nutcrackers
were at Tiffany Springs. I drove over about 24 inches of packed snow
drifts, but got clear through to Long Swamp which still looked like winter
with no leaves on the bushes yet.

The Sinlahekin Valley was full of birds, but I didn't spend much time
digging any out as I was heading south to Walla Walla 5 hours away. I did
see several Bobolinks close to the road before heading south.

Sat. I tried for the Broad-tailed Hummingbird. Several times I thought I
heard it, but could not get a visual on it as there were too many hummers
flying all the time. Must be over 100. The commonest is Black-chinned with
lots of Calliope also and a few Rufous. MerryLynn Denny and I noted one
female hummer (large size) with buffy breast and a large white tick behind
her eye. If someone else sees her I would like some feed back on your
comments. To get to the Broad-tailed Hummingbird place drive up Biscuit
Ridge Rd. not too far off of Hwy 12. Watch for a sign Hummingbird crossing
on your right near a green house. Tom Lamb lives here and has 32 feeders up
all around his house. The Broad-tailed was seen on the northwest corner of
of his house by Mike Denny about 3 feet away from his face. Also of
interest is a photo taken of one of the Black-chinned males with a band on
his leg. Watch for him among the zillions of other Black-chinned males.

Ken Knittle, Vancouver, WA
washingtonbirder at hotmail.com



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