Hello, tweeters.

We pursued a Great Circle Route yesterday (5 Oct), driving from
Seattle to Yakima to Goldendale to the Columbia River to Vancouver
and back to Seattle on I-5. It was a dragonfly trip, which are never
as birdy as bird trips, but I was struck that summer is indeed over,
as there were so few birds to be seen from the road, even in open
country (basically Red-tailed Hawks, corvids, and starlings). We saw
an Osprey in Ellensburg and a Pacific-slope Flycatcher in Vancouver
that I thought were a bit late.

There were very few migrants in Maryhill State Park and at the mouth
of Rock Creek in Klicktat County, although both places look very
promising as migrant traps. Rock Creek ends up in a linear lake well
above where it hits the Columbia River, and there is a riparian strip
along the creek down to where it joins the lake. This strip looks as
if it ought to be a channel for migrants and might be full of birds
at some times.

However, we did accomplish our goal to find and photograph Olive
Clubtails (Stylurus olivaceus) on the Columbia River at Vancouver.
This dragonfly flies later in the fall than any of its relatives, for
some reason, and very few photos of it seem to be available.
--
Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
1500 N. Warner, #1088
Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html