Subject: 4-day weekend in southeast Washington
Date: Jul 7 20:34:17 2003
From: washingtonbirder. Knittle - washingtonbirder at hotmail.com


Marv Breece and I spent 4 days birding southeastern Washington. July 4 we began by birding Lewis & Clark Trail State Park area then on to Lyons Ferry, Tucannon River, Godman Springs, Wooten Wildlife Area, and ending the day waiting for Poorwills on the Garfield-Columbia County line without success. July 5 (Sat.) we began our day at the National Forest Boundary Campground 15 miles south of Pomeroy and headed south to Sunset Point, Diamond Peak trailhead (FR 4030), back to Pomeroy, Central Ferry, Hastings Bar, Lower Granite Dam, and back up to FR 4030 to Misery Springs Campground. July 6 (Sun.) we began at Misery Springs and headed east to Wenatchee Guard Station, then down Smoothing Iron Ridge to Asotin Creek, Clarkston and over the Snake River into Whitman Co. to Nisqually John Canyon, Wawawai Grade, Steptoe Butte, then back roads to Elberton where there is a wildlife area, on to Kamiak Butte. Monday July 7 we started by hiking the trails on Kamiak Butte then headed to La Crosse on to Palouse Falls and headed home.

July 4 highlites are as follows:

At Lyons Ferry there were 4 White Pelicans at the Palouse River mouth in Whitman Co. And a Herring Gull out of range for summer time flying down the Snake River.
Along the Tucannon River we found Lewis's Woodpeckers and Cordilleran Flycatchers. Up in the high country we found 1 Turkey Vulture rare in southeastern WA and 1 Three-toed Woodpecker east of Godman Springs. And on our return trip going through the Tucannon River valley we had 1 Veery, 1 Chat, 1 Catbird, and 1 Black-chinned Hummingbird.

July 5 highlites:

This day brought Williamson's Sapsuckers around every tree. Even found an active nest at the Diamond Peak trailhead with both parents feeding young. At Sunset Point we found a Townsend's Solitaire on the nest in the steep rock bank above the road. We marked the spot with 3 rocks on top of each other at the side of the road at the base of the bank on the lower part of Sunset Point where we could not find Green-tailed Towhees, even though it looked great for habitat.
By the time we got back to Pomeroy and onto Central Ferry and Hastings Bar it was hot and birding was slow. You know it's slow when you get excited about a Double-crested Cormorant only to find a dozen more at Lower Granite Dam. At the dam we went as far as one can drive and found a Red-eyed Vireo and Chats in a small ravine east of the dam.

July 6 highlites:

Sleeping at Misery Springs Campground we headed east towards Wenatchee Guard Station. Before we even got out of Garfield County we found a family of 4 Three-toed Woodpeckers. We marked the spot by finding a dirty brown beer bottle and put in on a large cut log on the south side of the road west of Wickiup Campground. The woodpeckers were on the north side of the road. After missing the Green-tailed Towhees at the Wenatchee Guard Station and heading back west we found another Three-toed Woodpecker this one in Asotin Co. a mile or two east of the Garfield-Asotin County line. We couldn't believe our luck finding this woodpecker in all three southeast counties.
Down along Asotin Creek we found Cordilleran Flycatchers, Chukar, 1 Red-eyed Vireo, Canyon Wren on a very small rock out-cropping, and Chats jumped out of the bushes when we pished from the car window.
In Whitman County along the Snake River where Nisqually John Canyon hits the road there was an adult male Bufflehead in the pond looking way out of sorts as they are rare in summer. Not too much until we got to Steptoe Butte where Catbirds were at the picnic area. Elberton looked like a ghost town with a boarded up old church and boarded up old house and a wildlife area--a neat place to see. At Kamiak Butte we found a Pacific-slope Flycatcher side-by-side with a Dusky Flycatcher and noted the voice and how gray green the Pacific-slope was to the Cordillerans we had seen earlier and how the habitat was different. The Cordillerans we had seen and heard were in Alders along creeks and showed lots of yellows and brown hues and then the Pacific-sloped looked so gray-green much like our western Washington Western Flycatchers and how this birds was in bushy Doug Fir mixed forest mid-story.

July 7

After a warm night at Kamiak we birded the trails finding all three nuthatches, a couple Brown Creepers, and 3 Great Horned Owls (2 of them young).. We didn't have much time so we headed for La Crosse and had Grasshopper Sparrows singing and 9 Burrowing Owls. Palouse Falls we couldn't find a whole lot, but nice to see the White-throated Swifts.

Ken Knittle, Vancouver, WA
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