Subject: Waterville to Lincoln CO. birding 01/29/03
Date: Jan 30 16:27:58 2003
From: Jason Paulios - jpaulios at hotmail.com



Gary Wiles and I made a trip over to Douglas and Lincoln counties yesterday
(29th) to see the Snow Buntings and Gray Partridge. We got some good tips
before we left (thanks all) and had our "best" birding on Bagdad Road (as
seen in the last WA Birder issue-Lincoln CO. birding - thanks to Mark
Houston!). It was fairly quiet the whole day, we ended with only 23
species. The weather was not great but it was fun to stomp around in the
snow. Horned Larks were everywhere, the Snow Buntings were not very
cooperative however. The flocks were very flighty, and the fog/snow made
scoping impossible. Best luck would be had with a scope and overcast/sunny
days.
Notable sightings were:

8 Rough-legged Hawks (4 on Hwy 172, 1 Rimrock RD, 1 Hwy 17, 1 R NE-Lincoln
CO., 1 USHwy 2 near Almira)
1 MERLIN "Taiga" (Hwy 172 near Bridgeport Hill RD)
14 Gray Partridge (7 on US Hwy 2 near Farmer, 7 on Hwy 172 near Withrow)
1 Northern Shrike (V RD in Lincoln CO.) -had a decapitated Horned Lark
impaled on a barbed wire fence.
200 (approx.) SNOW BUNTINGS (4 flocks of about 50 birds each. 1 flock on
Hwy 2 near Atkins Lake, the rest were seen on Bagdad Road or spur roads off
Bagdad).
1 Western Meadowlark (Sagebrush Flat Road out of Ephrata)

Jason Paulios
JPaulios at hotmail.com
Olympia, WA



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