Subject: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker photos
Date: Feb 29 20:54:23 2004
From: Denny Granstrand - dgranstrand at charter.net


Hi Tweeters,

My wife joined me for a trip to the Tri-Cities area today. At Hood Park south of Pasco, Chris searched the evergreens for Northern Saw-whet Owls while I tried to find the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker originally found by Mike Denny about ten days ago. We both dipped, though we did find two Barn Owls. We ran into Larry and Jacque Goodhew and then Nancy and Bill LaFramboise who were looking for the same birds. After another hour of searching, I decided to try Fishhook Park east of Pasco for the owls. Before I left them, Nancy dialed my cell phone number into her phone, just in case they located the sapsucker while I was still in phone range.

Chris and I hadn't even gotten out of the park when Nancy called. They had found the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at its rows of sap holes in the pine trees just north of the amphitheater. I managed to get back there before it flew but couldn't get my binos on it. I did, though, get great looks at it in the next tree it landed in.

We followed it around the park and I managed to get lots of poor photos of it. I continued tracking the sapsucker after Nancy and Bill left. Nancy thought it would eventually get back to the pines and its sap holes. I finally lost it, went back to the pines and set up for its hoped arrival there.

It showed up within six or eight minutes and posed for photos. Two of them are in the new photos folder on my website (the link is in the signature line). I want to thank Nancy for calling me when they found the sapsucker. This is a great reason to carry a cell phone!

Chris and I proceeded to Fishhook Park where we again couldn't find any owls. We did have a great day.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA

* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
photos on-line at:
http://osprey.bardill.net/gallery/