Greetings All,

This morning I birded from my favorite bench along the Loop Trail at Walla
Walla Point Park in Wenatchee for about 2.5 hours. This bench overlooks
a small bay at the south end of Confluence State Park with nice views of
the Columbia River and to the north, Burch Mountain.
Sunny and breezy weather made the stay quite pleasant.

Upon arrival, a scan of the bay and habitat along the Loop Trail produced
views of the usual ...Common Merganser, Ring-billed and California Gull,
Green-winged Teal ,Vaux's Swift ,Osprey, Yellow Warbler, Savannah Sparrow.

A hatch-year Osprey fished the bay, sometimes in quite close. The buffy on
the breast and nape, easy to see on recent fledglings, was almost gone but I
could see some definite buffy on the underwing coverts along with pale
fringes on the back and upper wing coverts. This could be the young bird
from the nearby nest on the railroad bridge over the Wenatchee River.

A dark-morph Pomarine Jaeger flew in and sat on a mud shoreline of the small
bay in the vicinity of the gulls. Pale legs and dark feet. This jaeger was
viewed for about an hour. It was interesting to see that all of the gulls
had a
comfort margin of 5 foot spacing between themselves and the jaeger.

A Clay-colored Sparrow was seen well in a mulberry tree along the trail
near the bench. They have been reported in Chelan County only a few times.
I suspect that they are rare but annual here.

While watching the jaeger I heard a sparrow give a high thin call note
behind me unlike the sharp call I had been hearing from the Savannah
Sparrows.
This small sparrow was in a Quaking Aspen but flew down onto the lawn.
Got my scope on it. Dull buffy on the side of the head including above the
eye, a noticeable eye ring, no full eye line but rather a small curvy line
near the nape.Two small curvy spots at opposite corners of the auriculars.
Crown streaked with black with a very thin buffy white crown stripe[hard to
see].
Mantle feathers edged with white particularly the tertails-very broad white
edges.
Underparts dull white. A necklace of streaks across the breast. The sides
streaked. Possible Baird's?

Walla Walla Point Park can be reached by several routes. One is to head east
from Wenatchee Ave onto Hawley Street. Follow the arterial to Walla Walla
Avenue. The park will be on the left on this street. After entering the park
go left, then right. The bench is north of ballfield #1.


Good Birding,
Dave Beaudette
Wenatchee,WA
drtbrdr at earthlink.net