Greeting All,

On 6 February 2003, Roger Orness and I birded the Waterville Plateau in
Douglas County. We made a special effort to locate raptors.

Red -tailed Hawk... 5 were seen. One was an adult rufous morph seen along US
2 at the west end of the Plateau at about MP 146.6 One was a dark morph
Harlans intergrade...tail had a reddish cast with gray mottling and a gray
smudgy terminal band. This bird was seen along SR 172 and G NE, east of
Mansfield. The other three were Western light morph birds.

Rough-legged Hawk...at total of 14 were seen. Three dark morph birds, 11
light morph birds.

Prairie Falcon...only two birds seen.

Cooper's Hawk...the only Accipiter seen was an adult female Cooper's along
Douglas Creek just north of Douglas.

Snow Bunting...large flocks were seen at three locations: 1]along E NW just
north of US 2, west of Farmer 2]along G NE east of SR 17 and 3]along US 2
in the Atkins Lake Area. The days count was more than 4000 birds.

Lapland Longspur...a single bird seen at close range with Snow Buntings and
Horned Larks along G NE east of SR 17.

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