To escape the colder weather of eastern WA for a few days our family headed west on Tuesday, ahead of the storm that we thought might make travel over the pass difficult the next day. I don't remember snow in Othello when we left. Well, from our motel in Seattle the snow started about the time the Holiday Bowl (congrats Cougs) ended, and we travelled through more Wednesday morning west of Olympia.

We did the Brady Loop for the first time (nice having birding guides with maps to describe locations) and had a good representation of raptors: MERLIN, PEREGRINE FALCON, BALD EAGLE, N ROUGH-LEGGED & RED-TAILED HAWK, and N HARRIER, plus AM PIPIT, W SCRUB-JAY, BB PLOVER, loads of MOURNING DOVES, and a flock of 40 W MEADOWLARKS among others. There was 2-4 inches of snow covering fields, and most of the water was frozen.

Hoquiam was the next destination. It is hard to imagine better planning than this stop; Denny Grandstrand arrived ahead of us at the end of K Street, had already found the PINK-FOOTED GEESE, and even held the umbrella over his scope as Elaine and I viewed the geese without getting wet before they wandered out of view. I didn't even have to pull out my scope! There was at least one GR WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE there as well. Thanks Denny.

On to Ocean Shores (there was snow there as well), where the setting sun was covered by clouds at the jetty. Denny was there also, and we saw SURFBIRD, BLACK TURNSTONE, and ROCK SANDPIPER. My goal was to find a shearwater, and while the wind was in our favor to push birds toward shore, the waves were rather wet for glasses, binoculars, and spotting scope.

Wednesday morning was much calmer, but no shearwaters visible from the jetty. I did see a couple of BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES in the distance. The ROCK SANDPIPERS and BLACK TURNSTONES that had huddled in a roost behind a rock on the beach scattered when I approached. At the WTP a lone GR WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE was present. All three scoters were together on the bay, and lots of DUNLIN, SANDERLINGS, and BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS worked the edge of the out-going tide.

Unfortunately the snowy weather that slowed us down on the west side was hitting the Columbia Basin so I had to miss lots of intended birding stops to get back. When we got home there was 5" to shovel from the driveway. But I'm glad I didn't visit relatives in CA during this holiday season or I might not make it back.

Chalk up two more on the goose chase, Ruth.

Randy Hill
Othello