Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I enjoyed a calm day of birding in the Columbia Basin of
eastern WA,mainly in search of the BLUE JAY south of Othello in Adams Co.
along with additional birding made at other locations on our way home. We
arrived at Sundance Rd.(accessed from Atkinson Rd. off of S.R.24)at 8:30am
and immediately checked the entire "loop" road by car with NO luck in
locating the Blue Jay,then we walked the entire road three times as well as
drove it a few more times along with checking a nearby housing area
development west of Sundance Rd.,but still NO Blue Jay until we almost left
the location at 11:15am when the bird was well observed sitting on a
fencepost on the west portion of Sundance Rd. The bird was seen loosely
associating itself with several Am.Robins and 2 Black-billed Magpies,until
the bird flew alone over Sundance Rd. and flew towards the original location
and property in which the bird was first located and has remained. We
quickly drove down to the property within 15 seconds,but we were unable to
relocate the bird upon further extensive coverage until 12:30pm. The bird
was never heard calling,as according to the property owner mentioned to us
at the residence,but it seemes the bird is moving around the area and may
visit this location only sparingly the further the bird remains. The
property owner was very happy we observed the Blue Jay today, although
briefly,but if the bird does not call it can be presumably more difficult to
locate and may roost silently in several dense pine trees near and at the
location at the south end of Sundance Rd. The entire housing area is
somewhat wary of outsiders during our visit,but once they knew of our
presence and our reasons for being along Sundance Rd. the residents were
more cooperative,BUT please be curtious and aware of the privacy of this
residential area for any visit made to this location. One of the interested
residents was very nice and gave us some locally grown apples,in which we
told him about the presence of the Blue Jay and he immediately became
interested in this occurance.

After leaving Sundance Rd. at 12:30pm we headed north to Lind Coulee along M
St. in Grant Co. for some additional birding,despite the cold temperatures.
We arrived at Lind Coulee at 1pm and checked the area fairly thouroughly and
noted amongst good numbers of gull and waterfowl a shorebird flock that
contained 6 species of shorebirds,which added to our trip list. We then
proceeded west and checked the Potholes Reservoir along O'Sullivan Dam to
Potholes State Park(along S.R.262)as the conditions were very calm and
allowed great viewing of several waterbird species from several vantage
points,with the best location being from the public boat launch immediately
east of Potholes S.P.

On our way home we birded the Vantage area from 3pm-4pm along Huntzinger Rd.
south to Wanapum Dam(including Wanapum S.P)and at the Gingko Petrified
Forest S.P. overlook were extremely large uncountable numbers of waterfowl
were noted from ALL locations along the Columbia River. Up to 19 species of
waterfowl were observed among other waterbird species noted including:

1 Red-necked Grebe
1 EARED GREBE
14 Am.White Pelicans
2 female SURF SCOTERS
2 LONG-TAILED DUCKS(Oldsquaw)

More time was needed to thoroughly and carefully scan and count/seperate the
waterfowl to species along various vantage points along Huntzinger Rd.,but
we still managed to locate a few good species to the end the day,with the
best observations made from Wanapum S.P. campground. Our last two species of
the day were both owls with a Great Horned Owl observed along I-90 at MP 89
west of Thorp on the Springwood Ranch property in Kittitas Co. perched atop
a hay and storage barn and a Barn Owl flying over I-5 at Fife in Pierce Co.
A list of our entire list of highlights for the day follow at selected
locations and times:

Hwy.26 at Corfu Rd.,Grant Co.(GR) 8am

1 Northern Shike

Sundance Rd. and vicinity,Adams Co. 8:30am-12:30pm

12 Horned Larks(flying over)
1 BLUE JAY
1 Hermit Thrush
1 Varied Thrush
30+ Yellow-rumped Warblers

Lind Coulee,GR 1pm-1:30pm

8 Greater Yellowlegs
3 Least Sandpipers
23 Dunlin
27 Long-billed Dowitchers
1 Wilson's Snipe
290+ Ring-billed Gulls
2 Herring Gulls
28 Am.Pipits

O'Sullivan Dam(Potholes Reservoir)and vicinity,GR 1:45pm-2:15pm

4 Common Loons
18 Western Grebes
2 CLARK'S GREBES
1 Am.White Pelican
1 Merlin
1 Least Sandpiper
2 Long-billed Dowitchers
12 Bonaparte's Gulls
7 Am.Pipits

Frenchman Hills Rd.(immediately north of S.R.262),GR 2:30pm

10 Tundra Swans

Vantage and vicinity(including Wanapum S.P and Dam),Kittitas Co.(KT)
3pm-4pm

8 Common Loons
1 Red-necked Grebe
1 EARED GREBE
14 Am.White Pelicans
2 LONG-TAILED DUCKS(Oldsquaw)
2 SURF SCOTERS
15+ Herring Gulls
1 Varied Thrush

I-90 at MP 89 west of Thorp,KT 4:45pm

1 Great Horned Owl

I-5 at Fife,Pierce Co. 6:45pm

1 Barn Owl


It was a great day of birding!


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net