Hello Tweets,

This evening upon finishing our entire Birdathon after 4:30pm along the
Tieton River south of Rimrock Retreat(with 2 male Harlequin Ducks being our
last countable species), my mother and I did some additional birding at the
White Pass Campground from 5-6pm(just east of White Pass along Hwy.12),which
is still snow-covered from the entrance road into the entire campground
area being around 4500' in elevation,but the road and nearby associating
Leech Lake are slowly thawing out since our last visit on the 11th of May.
We were fortunate that the weather was still favorable,after a few scattered
rain showers heading south along Hwy.12 from Rimrock Retreat. Our main
purpose was to relocate the Williamson's Sapsucker that we located on the
11th and to do some additional birding before we headed home. We were able
to locate up to 3 Williamson's Sapsucker(1 male,2 females)near campsite #8
and 2 seperate possible nestsites located within the same vicinity. Our main
highlight was the last species noted during our visit,being a female
BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER briefly perched atop a snag at the entrance to the
campground and viewed along Hwy.12,which was a great sight after hearing one
bird near this location(which was also our last species on the 11th of May
during the Yakima Co. Birdathon). We also encountered a relatively good
movement of migrating/and or nesting songbirds in general with several
species that were not noted last week including:

3 Golden-crowned Kinglets
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Hermit Thrush
1 Yellow Warbler
18 Yellow-rumped Warblers(both subspecies)
25+ Townsend's Warblers(being mostly all males)
1 Wilson's Warbler
3 Song Sparrows
1 adult Golden-crowned Sparrow
1 White-crowned Sparrow

Other species on nearby bordering Leech Lake included:

1 pair of Ring-necked Duck
6(3 pair)Barrow's Goldeneyes
4 Spotted Sandpipers(foraging along the ice-covered portions of the lake,as
well as other shoreline areas)

On a side note we encountered a few species during our eastern WA route of
interest including the following:

2 Pacific Loons along the Columbia River at Vantage

1 female Red-breasted Merganser with 9 Eared Grebes at Wenas Lake

2 Red-necked Phalaropes with 17 Wilson's Phalaropes along the South Frontage
Rd. at the Winchester Wasteway.


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net