Natalie and I spent the weekend birding our way across Eastern Washington
to the Othello area on a trip to show her mother and father the remaining
Sandhill Crane flocks and to get a glimpse of the spring arrivals in this
birdy part of the state.

We had a good day of birding in excellent sunny but not too warm weather
on Saturday, spotting 70 species and ending the day by viewing the 2000-
plus SANDHILL CRANES near Corfu. There were a number of highlights on the
way to Corfu. We enjoyed watching an AMERICAN DIPPER feeding near the
bridge off the Gold Creek exit near Snoqualmie Pass. WHITE-CROWNED and
SAVANNAH SPARROWS were common along West Nelson Siding road on the way
down toward Cle Elum, and we found a pair of TURKEY VULTURES circling
over the fields north of the road. MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS were easy to find
on Hidden Valley Road and Swauk Prairie in Kittitas County. The cemetery
in Swauk Prairie also held a California Tortoiseshell butterfly, one of
the first of a number of butterfly species we would see over the weekend.

Continuing east toward Vantage, we took the Old Vantage Highway out of
Kittitas and had a productive stop at the Quilomene Wildlife Area, where
a SAGE THRASHER popped up and sang just a few feet away, offering great
viewing and photography through the spotting scope. We also heard and
watched a number of BREWER'S SPARROWS singing from the tops of the sage
brush, and we heard but didn't see a SAGE SPARROW. Cabbage and Becker's
White butterflies could be seen in a number of places along Old Vantage
Highway, and at our stop at the Ginko Interpretive Center I spied the
first of what would be many Anise Swallowtails we would see from the
Columbia River eastward. From the cliffs at the interpretive center we
could see a COMMON LOON diving in the Columbia River below, and HORNED
and EARED GREBES were scattered across the wide Wanapum Lake.

We took Huntzinger Road south from Vantage and had at least one surprise
- a TUNDRA SWAN at the end of an island in the middle of the river near
two AMERICAN PELICANS.

The next stop was to check Dodson Road, and at the wetlands at the corner
of Dodson Road and Frenchman Hills Road, shortly after Matt Bartels drove
past us, we enjoyed viewing at least 40 BLACK-NECKED STILTS feeding and
chasing each other across the ponds where we also watched CINNAMON TEAL
and REDHEAD. We viewed two small shorebirds in these ponds that we took
at first to be Western Sandpipers. We are still a bit torn on this ID.
The birds were small, had long and pretty straight black bills, and dark
legs. We tried to find the birds again on Sunday and failed to find them
in the area...

We ended the day Saturday visiting Corfu, where a single LONG-BILLED
CURLEW flew overhead and issued its distinct cur-lee call as it passed.
We made a final stop at the County Line Ponds and watched more stilts on
the north side of Highway 26 and at least five AMERICAN AVOCETS on the
south side of the highway.

Bird highlights were fewer on Sunday, as we made a much earlier return to
Tacoma than we would normally do when birding alone. The Para Ponds along
McManamon Road offered excellent birding. One SNOW GOOSE was in the field
on the north side of the road, mixed in with at least 2,000 Canada Geese.
After about 30 minutes of checking every blackbird we could find in the
area we finally spotted a TRI-COLORED BLACKBIRD just south of the road.
Mixed in with the waterfowl to the south of the road was also a single
TUNDRA SWAN. We veered north along a gravel road into the Seep Lakes
Wildlife Area and saw the first of eight LONG-BILLED CURLEW in the open
fields just north of McManamon Road. SAY'S PHOEBE were plentiful, and a
couple of ROCK WRENS called from the top of the basalt columns on a mesa
in the middle of the wildlife area.

We ended our birding at the north Potholes Wildlife Area, after making a
return to Dodson Road. Given the mid-afternoon heat, bird activity was
pretty slow at the Potholes, but we did view a number of GREAT EGRET in
the trees near the large GREAT BLUE HERON rookery.

In all we ended the weekend with 80 species. We look forward to returning
to the area in another month during our Birdathon trip for the Tahoma
Audubon Society!

Happy birding,

Rob

--
Rob McNair-Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
Author of Birding Washington (Falcon Publishing, 2004)
and Insider's Guide to the Olympic Peninsula (Globe Pequot, 2001)
White Rabbit Publishing ---- http://www.whiterabbits.com
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com
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