Hi Tweets,

Andy Stepniewski and I yesterday birded the east side of Banks Lake, the
Grand Coulee Plateau, the Atkins Lake area along Highway 2 and finished with
a rush down to just south of Moses Lake. The day started dark as we left
Yakima quite early but lightened as we proceeded north. The weather was
clear and cold at our first few stops but fog was noticed as we got near
Electric City. There was much fog on the north end of the Grand Coulee
Plateau.

At Steamboat Rock State Park we found one American Tree Sparrow, a target
species, along with several Bald Eagles. Numerous Red-breasted Mergansers
were found at several stops along Banks Lake. Common Merganser and Hooded
Merganser were also noted, along with lots of Common Goldeneye and several
Barrow's Goldeneye.

At the north end of Banks Lake, we found a large flock of gulls close to the
east end of the dam comprised mostly of Herring Gulls with two Thayer's
Gulls, one first year Western Gull and two Glaucous-winged/Western hybrids.
As we were heading back to the car, Andy scanned to area at the west end of
the dam and discovered a first-year Glaucous Gull, a first for me for
Eastern Washington. It, unfortunately, didn't get close enough for a decent
photo but did fly right over us.

Birds on the Grand Coulee Plateau were sporadic, though we did find four
Rough-legged Hawks and one Prairie Falcon, along with numerous Horned Larks.
One Snow Bunting was seen flying over on us Douglas Road.

Just east of Atkins Lake along Highway 2 we came up two flocks of Snow
Buntings with approximately 3000 buntings total. They were first seen on
the road getting grit. Andy noticed a small cluster of mullen, which was
attracting the buntings. We crept up on it where I managed to get some
decent photos. Several of them can be seen on the BirdYak website:

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/BirdYak/lst

In among the hordes of Snow Buntings was one Gray-crowned Rosy Finch.

We proceeded to Moses Lake with no stops until reaching the area of M SE and
5 SE where two Snowy Owls were seen two weeks ago. After about 45 minutes
of searching, we spotted one Snowy Owl sitting on a pile of pallets north of
5 and east of M. Again it was too far away for photos.

It was a good day.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA



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* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* osprey at nwinfo.net *
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