Rose and Edith from Aberdeen joined me today birding southern Skamania and western Klickitat Counties. Places we stopped at were:
McCloud Rec. Area
Franz Lake NWR
Skamania Landing Rd.
Home Valley
Little White Salmon Fish Hatchery
Spring Creek Fish Hatchery
Bingen Marina
Balch Lake
Lyle
Klickitat River
Crofton Prairie
Conboy NWR Headquarters
Conboy NWR south of Glenwood
Kreps Lane

With 84 species our best birds were 13+ Western Kingbirds at the baseball parks in Home Valley and 6 Least Sandpipers at Crofton Prairie 12 miles or so west of Goldendale. Lots of migrants such as Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Cassin's Finches(Kreps Ln), Lazuli Buntings(Kreps Ln), Vaux's Swifts(Klickitat River), 2 pairs of Purple Martins at the boat launch on Skamania Landing Rd., 1 male Anna's Hummingbird at the primitive campground just north of Lyle along with Bushtits.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes were courting and going through their ritual 200 feet away off of Kreps Ln. Also on Kreps Ln. were Lazuli Buntings, Cassin's Finches, White-crowned Sparrows feeding on the ground with Juncos and a small party of (all males) Western Tanagers in the small trees.
Temperatures were very low with the lowest being at Conboy NWR at 41 F and some sleet showing on the windshield.

Tomorrow we'll give Clark and Cowlitz Counties a shot.

Ken Knittle, Vancouver, WA
washingtonbirder at hotmail.comGet more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
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