Subject: Adams, Benton, Grant, and Kittitas Counties
Date: Mar 2 08:45:14 2002
From: Kerry Turley - kdturley at bentonrea.com



Date: March 2, 2002

I've been couped up too long and it was such a beautiful day that I made a
mad dash around Adams, Benton, Grant, and Kittitas Counties, Washington in
search of a few target species...which I did not find, Ahhh but it was a
beautiful day!!

I did have a few surprises though.

First stop was at the Para Ponds in Othello hoping to see the Tri-colored
Blackbirds but no success, I did see an unusual NORTHERN PINTAIL that had a
rufous breast, other than that he was marked the same as the rest of the
pintails. (Are Pintails known to Hybridize? and is that a word?)

Para Ponds also had 75+ Swans on it, the ones that gave me a fair look all
seemed to be TUNDRA SWANS.

A few miles farther down McManoman Rd. I had my second surprise, as I
looked for early arriving Sage Sparrows, I came across a flock of 10-15
AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS all hanging around a small sage brush patch near the
road. This really seemed like odd habitat for them, I assume they are
probably just migrating through.

I did find a couple of early arriving SAGE SPARROWS near the Amphitheater at
the gorge in Grant Co., which made me hope that there might be other early
arrival of sparrows in the area, so I headed for the vantage area hoping for
an early Lark Sparrow (and silently hoping for a Black-chinned Sparrow below
the dam) I was surprised to find this area to be totally void of song
birds...eerie.

I was hoping also to see some early Sandhill Cranes , but missed on that one
too.

Birds seen :

Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron

Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel
American Coot

Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker
Say's Phoebe
Violet-green Swallow
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
American Robin
European Starling
American Tree Sparrow
Sage Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
House Finch
House Sparrow

Total number of species seen: 44

Kerry Turley
304 E. Woodin Rd.
Sunnyside, WA 98944