Subject: Sparrow comparisions
Date: Mar 24 17:09:52 2003
From: Rob Sandelin - floriferous at msn.com


Today my students did some bird survey work. One group got nice looks at
Song, Savannah, fox and a Lincoln sparrow, all in the same brush pile, in
the middle of a vacant lot in a business park. We all got great views, the
savannah was particularly striking with its golden wash over the head and
the very clean yellow eyebrow. I couldn't have planned a better introduction
to sparrows.

All three groups reported snipes, and as we were all together walking back
to school, a northern harrier took a pass at a great blue heron in a field,
the heron ducked and loudly squawked a protest which flushed 2 pairs of
mallards from a ditch, which set a bunch of mixed blackbirds flying as well,
all in sort of an avian chain reaction.

I had to drag several of the students away, school was officially over. On
my way home, I drove past 4 of them out in the same field looking at birds
some more. I think they are hooked.

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Rob McNair-Huff
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 12:44 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: Cranes, swallows, loons, and bluebirds


Natalie and I spent the weekend birding in Eastern Washington with her
parents along for the trip. The purpose of the trip was to see the
Sandhill Cranes and see if we could catch a repeat of the "bird tornado"
we watched along Corfu Road last year, and to stop by the Sandhill Crane
Festival in Othello. We didn't spend a ton of time at the festival, which
seemed to be more crowded than last year and had another great lineup of
presentations and discussions. Instead we headed out birding on our own
before spending the night in Moses Lake and then working our way home
through the snow at Snoqualmie Pass last night. In all we saw 51 species
over the two days.

Highlights for the trip included seeing 10 LONG-BILLED CURLEW that appear
to be finding nesting places in the Seeps Lakes Wildlife Area, a lot of
CANYON and ROCK WRENS in both the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge and
Seeps Lakes, a CLIFF SWALLOW at Seeps Lakes, two LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE along
Lower Crab Creek near Beverly, the YELLOW-BILLED LOON below the Wanapum
Dam, WESTERN KINGBIRD in a number of areas, and eight MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD
along the Old Vantage Highway near Kititas. Our last birds of the trip
were a pair of WILSON'S SNIPE that we first saw walking slowly, one after
the other across the highway near Kititas. They remained alongside the
road after we passed and we snapped some photos of them before they flew
across the highway into a farm field to resume their chasing behavior.

As a special note for Diane MacRae, we watched five TURKEY VULTURE
circling over the east end of Warden Lake in the Seeps Lake Wildlife Area.

It was great to see so many birders in the area this weekend, and we were
happy to run into Ken Knittle and John Williams birding along the
Columbia River near Vantage on our way back home yesterday.

I should also note this was a great trip for viewing other animals and
plants. We found a number of plants coming into bloom: Desert Parsley and
many others in Seeps Lakes, Balsomroot and Flox in the areas around
Vantage. And we saw some great mammals on the trip: A PORCUPINE in a
tree, sunning himself and feeding at the Potholes Wildlife Area; a lone
COYOTE wandering between the rock outcroppings at Seeps Lakes; and two
YELLOW-BELLIED MARMOT along the cliffs at the Columbia National Wildlife
Refuge. I also saw my first butterflies of the new year while on this
weekend trip, including a CABBAGE WHITE butterfly along the trail system
at Crab Creek within the Columbia NWR, and another cabbage white along
Lower Crab Creek near Beverly.

Here are more details from the weekend:

Saturday, March 22, 2003 (30 species seen)

Driving east from Tacoma:
- American Crow
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Black-billed Magpie
- Violet-green Swallow
- Swan sp.
- Canada Goose
- Merganser sp.
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Brewer's Blackbird
- Mourning Dove
- Northern Flicker
- American Kestrel
- Northern Harrier
- Western Meadowlark

Corfu Road around 10 a.m.:
- Northern Harrier
- Western Meadowlark
- Ring-necked Pheasant
- Sandhill Crane (1000)
- Canada Goose (1500)
- Red-winged Blackbird (300)
- Yellow-headed Blackbird (200)
- House Finch

Dodson Road:
- American Wigeon
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Common Raven
- Ring-billed Gull
- American Kestrel

Potholes Wildlife Area:
- Great Blue Heron
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Cinnamon Teal
- Yellow-headed Blackbird
- American Coot (40)
- Killdeer (8)
- Bald Eagle
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Western Grebe
- Northern Flicker
- Violet-green Swallow

Corfu Road around 5:30 p.m.:
- House Finch
- California Quail
- Sandhill Crane (1500)
- Canada Goose (3000)
- Mallard
- American Wigeon
- Yellow-headed Blackbird
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Western Meadowlark
Notes: As we left there were thousands of ducks and geese swirling in the
air over the farm fields east of Corfu Road, while the cranes headed to
the northwest and away from the area...

Sunday, March 23, 2003 (38 species seen)

Moses Lake:
- American Coot (50)
- Bald Eagle
- Common Merganser
- Northern Pintail
- Rough-legged Hawk flying over
- European Starling
- American Robin
- Rock Dove
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Ring-billed Gull
- Northern Harrier

Seeps Lake Wildlife Area:
- Western Meadowlark
- Long-billed Curlew (10)
- Turkey Vulture (5)
- Ring-billed Gull
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Cliff Swallow
- Rock Wren
- Canyon Wren carrying nesting material up to the canyon wall
- Western Kingbird
- Common Raven
- Horned Lark

Columbia National Wildlife Refuge:
- Red-tailed Hawk
- American Robin (8)
- Western Meadowlark
- Canyon Wren
- Northern Flicker
- Cooper's Hawk
- Western Kingbird
- Violet-green Swallow
- Mallard
- Rock Wren
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Tree Swallow
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Marsh Wren
- American Kestrel
- Rock Dove
- Northern Harrier
- American Crow
- Sandhill Crane flying over

Crab Creek Wildlife Area:
- Black-billed Magpie
- Western Meadowlark
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Horned Lark
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Ring-necked Pheasant ran across the road, female
- Loggerhead Shrike (2)
- Northern Harrier
- Violet-Green Swallow
- Northern Flicker
- American Robin
- Common Raven
- Red-tailed Hawk

Vantage Area:
- Common Loon
- Yellow-billed Loon
- Western Grebe
- Western Kingbird
- Great Blue Heron
- Barrow's Goldeneye

Old Vantage Highway:
- Mountain Bluebird (8, including males and females paired up that were
looking at bluebird boxes and fighting the strong winds)
- Wilson's Snipe (2)



Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com/
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com/
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html


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