Tweets,

A few notes from August 16:

My tour group of eleven saw good numbers of Lesser Goldfinches along Old
Hwy. 8 west of Lyle on the morning of the 16th. There were at least 40
Lesser Goldfinches feeding in a large expanse of yellow starthistle on the
south side of Old Hwy. 8, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile west of the jct. with Canyon
Rd. The goldfinches were in smaller flocks of about 6-10 and scattered over
the thistle field. A more systematic survey may have turned up more. The
same day we saw two Lesser Goldfinches along the Trout Lake Hwy., roughly
halfway between Trout Lake and Glenwood.

Also during the morning of Aug. 16, we scoped one Acorn Woodpecker perched
on the traditional granary tree south of Old Hwy. 8 near the east jct. of
Balch Rd. We saw another or the same Acorn Woodpecker about 20 min. later
on the north side of Balch Rd., in a huge ponderosa pine snag about 100 yd.
north of the road. This snag is easily visible from the small pullout area
on the north side of the road about 50 yd. east of where you would scope the
old granary tree. We didn't notice any granary excavation in this snag, but
it looks like a good candidate. This Acorn Woodpecker was much closer to
the road and easily identifiable as an adult male with a full red cap. The
woodpecker was scoped as it perched on this tree for several minutes.

The other 90-some species seen on the trip included White-headed Woodpecker
and Gray Flycatcher at Conboy Lake NWR, and a very dark Merlin hawking
dragonflies from a snag in a wetland a mile or two south of Randle on
131/FR25. The same bird was present on Aug. 15 and 17, hunting from the
same snag.

Good birding, Bob

Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, WA