Sorry for the tardy report. Barbara and I went to Kittitas County on
Sunday, October 25. We stopped briefly at Snoqualmie Pass, Golf Course Road,
the MountainStar property near Roslyn, drove a few streets and checked the
barrows in Cle Elum. After refueling at the Pioneer Coffee Roasting Co. we
drove east through the Teanaway Valley, along Masterson Rd, checked Hidden
Valley Rd, and then drove to Ellensburg via Bettas Road, Hayward Road, and
Highway 10. From Ellensburg we drove up the Reecer Creek Road to Table
Mountain, then drove the roads north of Ellensburg until dusk, hoping to
spot Gray Partridge, but without success. We had sunny weather with good
visibility, and temperatures from mid 40's early to mid 60's at
midafternoon. Generally, we found small numbers of birds, many of the
migrants having departed and the winter birds only starting to arrive. We
did see our first Rough-legged Hawk of the season. 46 total species seen.


Canada Goose

Mallard

Barrow's Goldeneye (1 young male at Cle Elum)

Bufflehead (1 male, 5 females at Cle Elum)

Hooded Merganser (2 females, 1 juvenile at Cle Elum)

Common Merganser (1 pair at Cle Elum)

Great Blue Heron

Bald Eagle (1 at MountainStar, 1 in Yakima River near Thorp)

Northern Harrier (at least 10 birds)

Cooper's Hawk (2 seen; Teanaway Valley and Reecer Creek Road)

Red-tailed Hawk (c 10 seen, including one dark-phase bird near Ellensburg)

Rough-legged Hawk (1 circling above Table Mountain)

Golden Eagle (1 over the canyon just east of Table Mountain)

American Kestrel (4 seen: Hidden Valley, Bettas Road, Highway 10)

Prairie Falcon (1 on Bettas Road sparring with a raven - great views!)

Blue Grouse (in the middle of Table Mountain Road)

California Quail (3 groups, c 50 birds total)

Wilson's Snipe (3 in wet grass near Ellensburg)

Killdeer (2 over Reecer Creek Road)

Rock Dove

Belted Kingfisher

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Steller's Jay

Black-billed Magpie

American Crow

Common Raven

Northern Shrike (first-year bird on Reecer Creek Road)

American Dipper (2 in river by Golf Course Road)

Varied Thrush (1 seen, 1 heard at MountainStar)

American Robin (c 200 in streamside trees along Reecer Creek Road)

European Starling

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper (2 at MountainStar)

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Black-capped Chickadee

Mountain Chickadee (heard at Table Mountain)

House Sparrow

American Goldfinch

House Finch

Yellow-rumped Warbler

White-crowned Sparrow

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark



Paul Webster

Seattle

paul.webster at comcast.net