Subject: Waterville Plateau 3/1
Date: Mar 1 21:36:26 2003
From: Birdking88 at aol.com - Birdking88 at aol.com


Hello Tweeters,

Ryan Shaw, Tracey Norris, and myself birded in Douglas County today,
leaving Tacoma at 1 in the morning. Our first stop was Bridgeport State Park
while it was still dark, where we had a pair of GREAT HORNED OWLS giving
various calls but no other owls. We then drove over to Leahy Cutoff Road and
arrived at the grouse lek about 20 minutes before sunrise. Right when we got
out of the car we could hear the GREATER SAGE-GROUSE over the sage-covered
hilltops. We walked up on a rise in the road and scoped the grouse at a
comfortable distance for the birds. We watched the birds for about an hour,
despite the very cold temperature. In all, we counted 25 birds here; 19
displaying males and 6 females. Also in the area were about 6 LAPLAND
LONGSPURS.

We then birded the west end of Bridgeport Bar, where we had a dark
adult HARLAN'S HAWK, 2 TUNDRA SWANS, an AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, and a
heard-only AMERICAN TREE SPARROW. At the golf course near Bridgeport State
Park, Tracey spotted a flock of roughly 200 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS foraging in the
poplars and other introduced trees. At the state park itself was a flock of
100 CEDAR WAXWINGS. Along Heritage Rd (east of Mansfield; called Woods Rd/L
NE in Delorme) in a thicket we had very pleasant views of about 20 AMERICAN
TREE SPARROWS. Nearby was a columbarius MERLIN. Our last stop of the day
was along the Vantage Hwy at MM 21, where several SAGE SPARROWS greeted us in
the afternoon as the winds began picking up.

Cheers and good birding,

Charlie Wright
charlie at www.birdwright.com
Sumner, WA

PS - note new e-mail address