Tweets - yesterday, I led a Seattle Audubon field trip to Cle Elum and
Ellensburg, only we extended it to Vantage. Eight of us enjoyed a frosty
but sunny (and not windy) day. Much of the route followed the route of my
scouting trip that I posted about last week, and luckily we saw many of
the same things. But some additional locations resulted in some more
great birds.

Highlights:

YELLOW-BILLED LOON - in the spillway at Wanapum Dam, in the same scope
view with Common Loon.

American White Pelican - three about 1/2 mile south of Wanapum Dam.

Rough-legged Hawk - many (10+), starting a Swauk Prairie and continuing
east to the Old Vantage Hwy. At least 1 dark-morph bird.

Merlin - one in Cle Elum, one on Hidden Valley Rd.

Northern Shrike - both an adult and an immature on Hidden Valley Rd.

Horned Lark - very nice looks on the Swauk Prairie.

Mountain Chickadee - Emerick Rd (off Hidden Valley Rd).

Red-breasted & White-breasted Nuthatch - seen together on Emerick Rd (off
Hidden Valley Rd).

American Dipper - both at the Golf Course Rd. exit off I-90 and at the
Teanaway
River crossing on SR 10, the latter bird was singing wonderfully while we
watched.

Sage Sparrow - birds seen and heard at two locations on Old Vantage Hwy
nearing Vantage.

GREY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH - 40-50 birds on and over the cliff on the west
side of the Columbia just south of Wanapum Dam, seen at about 3:30 p.m.
Absolutely fantastic views of these birds actively moving around the face
of the cliff, often quite close to us. They appeared to be feeding in
crevasses in the cliff? In any case, they were moving from place to
place, going in and out of little openings, resting on rocks briefly,
hovering next to the clif face occasionally, etc. Flocks of 20-30 would
sometimes fly by - unclear how many birds there were total, as all were
moving around A LOT. Sometimes most would leave the cliff faces,
sometimes most would seem to be on the cliffs, sometimes there'd be
finches everywhere. These birds were very brightly colored. Looking in
Sibley, they appeared to be the Coastal (Gray-cheeked or Hepburn's) type,
and many of them had yellow bills, indicative of non-breeding plumage.
Some may have had dark bills, but they could also just have had dirty
bills.

Purple Finch & Cassin's Finch - seen together on Emerick Rd.

Red Crossbill - Both on Emerick Rd and next to the Swauk Cemetary These
may have been of different races. In any case, the ones at Swauk Cemetary
had very long bills - close to 1/2".

Evening Grosbeak - South Cle Elum

No bluebirds or Osprey were seen :(
Nor did we see any meadowlarks ???

In all, a really good trip.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http//www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm
== hummer at isomedia.com