Natalie and I escaped the rain of Western Washington for a 500-mile, one-
day excursion to the Waterville Plateau and surrounding areas yesterday,
and amid the signs of winter including flocks of SNOW BUNTING and HORNED
LARK on the plateau, we also found a few early signs of spring.

Our birding began along the Teanaway River east of Cle Elum, where we
watched two AMERICAN DIPPER feeding just north of the bridge on Red
Bridge Road. After leaving the river we made our way up toward Swauk
Prairie, and along the way on Ballard Hill Road we spotted a sure sign of
the coming spring - an all-male flock of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS mixing it
up with EUROPEAN STARLING in a farm field just west of the church.

At the cemetery on Swauk Prairie Road we found a plethora of birds. The
calls of RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET were the first we heard, but a little
pishing resulted in many more birds. We wondered if any of the five
MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES we watched in the pine trees were offspring of the
chickadees we photographed on their nesting box at the entrance to the
cemetery last spring. We also enjoyed close views of seven PYGMY NUTHATCH.

We continued along Swauk Prairie Road back toward its intersection with
the highway, spotting a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK on a utility pole along the
highway and a wary RED-TAILED HAWK that watched us as we drove underneath
it near the buffalo farm. The real action on this part of our trip was in
the pine trees where the road descends from the prairie back toward the
highway. We watched all three nuthatches - adding RED-BREASTED and WHITE-
BREASTED NUTHATCH to our sightings - working in the brush and trees where
they were joined by Mountain and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE. The woods were
full of the groking sounds of COMMON RAVEN, and two third-year BALD
EAGLES were also watching over the scene from snags, making us wonder if
a downed elk was nearby. Before leaving Swauk Prairie we did watch a pair
of deer on the hillside, one with a BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE sitting on its
back as it fed.

After driving over Blewett Pass we dropped down to the Wenatchee River
and hit the Bald Eagle jackpot, with 11 eagles seen between the
intersection with Hwy. 2 and Wenatchee. One highlight of the drive north
along Hwy. 97 to Orondo was watching a Bald Eagle scare up every last
bird on the Columbia River near Turtle Rock, including a large flock of
AMERICAN COOT that ran on top of the water and nearly over each other in
a mass effort to get out of the sights of the eagle as it passed about 20
feet overhead. What a sight to see hundreds of coots rising and splashing
as they ran on the water. If only I had a camera on the spectacle and
wasn't instead driving 60 mph down the highway...

Once we arrived on the Waterville Plateau we found the birding fairly
slow. A handful of small flocks of HORNED LARK were along the roads as we
made our normal route north from Waterville and then back east through
the town of Lamoine. Altogether we saw approximately 200 Horned Larks for
the day. The main reason we made our marathon one-day trip was to make a
last-ditch effort to see SNOW BUNTING this winter, and we were rewarded
with views of a flock of 40 buntings just west of Lamoine, where they
landed on the road and then alternated between feeding on grasses
sticking through the thick snow cover and landing on the power lines.

We left the plateau and headed north toward Bridgeport, with hopes of
finding a Sharp-tailed Grouse along Foster Creek on Bridgeport Hill Road.
Before we reached Foster Creek we stopped along the highway west of
Mansfield to watch a GOLDEN EAGLE as it sat on the highest rock formation
in the area and surveyed the surroundings for dinner opportunities. Once
we arrived at Foster Creek, after pulling over to watch a NORTHERN SHRIKE
on a power line near the top of the hill, the only bird we found in the
water birch near the bottom of Bridgeport Hill Road was a fully fluffed
NORTHERN FLICKER. No grouse, and unfortunately, no Common Redpolls either.

With darkness approaching and about 300 miles of driving behind us as we
pulled into Bridgeport, we didn't try to eek out a few final sightings
for the day at the Bridgeport Bar. Instead, we drove into Brewster,
passing huge floats of American Coots and other waterfowl on the Columbia
River. We made our final stop for the day in Brewster, where we found
five EARED GREBE and a single PIED-BILLED GREBE in the river with a
single COMMON LOON. A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK in a tree over the highway in
Brewster was the last bird of the day.

Happy birding!

--
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
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html