Hello all,

Alan Grenon and I spent the weekend birding at the Nile burn, with fairly
good success, all things considered. To start, we located Denny
Granstrand's Black-Backed Woodpecker nest, which was deserted, as
expected, but a careful search of the area provided a few Red-Naped
Sapsucker juviniles and one adult, and a couple of Hairy Woodpeckers. We
then headed to the main burn and set up camp, and while eating dinner, a
male White-Headed Woodpecker flew into an old nest hole directly in front
of us to roost for the evening, a life bird for me. The next morning
provided White-Headed, Black-Backed, Hairy, Red-Naped Sapsucker, Northern
Flicker. Missed the Williamson's Sapsucker.

On the way back to Chinook Pass, we stopped at Union Creek Trail, on a tip
that we may be able to pick up the sapsucker there, but instead came
accross a male Three-Toed Woodpecker. Other interesting birds for the
trip: Merlin, Red Crossbill, Evening Grosbeack, and Townsend's Warbler
near the Union Creek Trailhead, and many White-Breasted and Red-Breasted
Nuthatches, Mountain Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows, and what we presumed
to be immature Mountain Bluebirds in the burn area. Many of the Douglas
Firs and other trees on the eastern side of Chinook Pass look very ill,
and upon closer inspection, it appeared that the trees all had serious
insect infestation problems. A small tan moth was flying everywhere, so
we assumed that it's larvae may have been responsible. If anyone can shed
some more specific light on this, I'd love to hear it. At any rate, the
insectivores in the area must be having a banner year.

My thanks go out to all the great help I recieved in finding the burn and
nest, this trip could not have been successful without the help of all you
tweets. Thanks a lot, and good birding!

-Chris Duke
Bellingham, WA
dukec at cc.wwu.edu