Subject: Evening Grosbeak, Yelleo-billed Loon & Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Date: Mar 14 17:59:09 2003
From: B&P Bell - bellasoc at isomedia.com


Hi Tweets

A belated report on a trip to eastern Washington yesterday. Mike West,
Mary Frances Mathis and I spent the day over east of the Cascades
yesterday. Some rain going over Snoqualmie Pass transitioning to cloudy
overcast. A brief sidetrip at the Golf Course Road exit at Nelson and
left to Hundley Road had a nice adult Northern Shrike in the field in
the east side of the road. A quick check at Bullfrog area showed that it
is still snowy and cold with not much activity. Continuing down into Cle
Elum we had a flock of about 35 Evening Grosbeaks in trees at the
intersection of 4th St and Grant in South Cle Elum - really attractive
and all calling nicely. We picked up several pairs of Western Bluebird
along Hidden Valley Road including one extremely bright male. Across the
highway at Swauk Prairie we had many more pairs of Western Bluebirds and
in the Swauk Cemetary a nice look a bright male Cassin's Finch. We also
saw Western Meadowlarks and a Horned Lark in the area. Continiuing down
into the Ellensburg area we had approximately 15 pairs of Bald Eagles
and a number of Red-tailed Hawks.

Out east of town we found a Great Horned Owl in a nest west of the
intersection of Venture Road (marked as N. Caribou Rd on DeLorme) and
Lyon Road. We had a fairly brief time of rain, but as we turned east
toward Vantage it petered out. At Vantage we turned south along
Huntzinger Road watching the rocky slopes for Chukar, to no joy. At the
Wanapum Dam we stopped at the dam and had at least 5 Rock Wrens singing
with two of them coming in for a quick interaction. We might have had a
Brewer's Sparrow singing below the dam. At the overlook area on the west
side of the river below the dam we got some very nice looks at the
Yellow-billed Loon. The bird is indeed starting to show checkering on
its back and the bill is turning yellower, particularly on the front
upper portion. It looks much sandier overall than any of the Common
Loons still in the area. Just down the road we stopped at the cliff area
by the small canyon to see if we could get any response from a Canyon
Wren, but between the wind and cars we didn't hear anything. While we
were listening we had two finch-like birds come down from the cliffs and
around the cliff above the river - they looked suspiciously like
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. As I walked along the road I had five birds
come from the cliffs above the road and a bit south past me. They were
definitely rosy finches, but they disappeared into the high cliffs above
us. It will be a hard search, but some of these birds are still in the area.

The Columbia River had many Common Goldeneye on it, a small flock of
Lesser Scaup with at least one Greater Scaup. Further up river at the
Gingko interpretive center we had more scaup, some Bufflehead a couple
of Mallards. We also had at least three Violet-green Swallows cruise by
below us giving us very nice views (eat your heart out Mike Denny, or
have they rebounded down your way?). As we proceeded back west along the
Old Vantage Highway we traveled in company with at least 12 swallows
that were unidentified because of poor lighting. Finally, to cap the
day, we had an adult Golden Eagle perched on the crossarm of a telephone
pole. We were able to get fantastic views from about 50 yards for a
couple of minutes before it took off to the south.

A very nice day with signs of spring coming along the way. Some of the
willows were showing bright yellow branches, the cat-tails are starting
to come up in some of the ponds and the sage has fresh growth on it.
Even though it was overcast all day long, we had temperatures in the
mid-50s to low 60s. Didn't feel cold even when the wind was blowing.

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville Wa
bellasoc at isomedia.com