Mike & MerryLynn Denny and I had 4 great days of birding beginning Friday
Jan. 16. Friday we spent most of the day checking gulls over looking for
the Great Black-backed Gull which we missed. We did see the 18 Greater
White-fronted Geese, 1 Snow Goose, a Glaucous Gull, and 1 Eared Grebe.

Saturday we hit Mason County. Highlights included Trumpeter Swans behind a
barn in the field where Purdy Cutoff Rd. hits Highway 106, 1 Eurasian Wigeon
at the mouth of the Hamma Hamma River, several Canvasbacks, 1 Red-throated
Loon, Scoters, Purple Finches, tons of ducks, were at the mouth of the
Skokomish River using Terry Sisson's map from Washington Birder Vol. 11 #2
to get out to where the birds were, early afternoon we hit Mary E. Theler
Wetlands at Belfair. And ended the day again looking for the Great
Black-backed without any luck.

Sunday the three of us hit Wahkiakum County after first stopping at Willow
Grove near Longview where we saw 1 Cinnamon Teal and 1 White-tailed Kite.
Later in Wahkiakum County we saw lots of White-tailed Kites from Julia
Butler Hansen NWR to Rosburg taking the back roads. The refuge started us
off with the Black Phoebe not showing, but was there later in the afternoon,
Pipits, Dunlin, and a Western Gull just past the yellow barn. Altoona at
first was poor until the fog lifted and we had Red-throated & Pacific Loons,
Pelagic Cormorants, White-winged Scoters, Red-breasted Merganser, Ruddy
Ducks and MerryLynn found a 'County First' Long-tailed Duck diving with
Scaup, later seen swimming down the swift current going west. In the moss
covered trees (rain forest looking) on our way out we spotted a chickadee
flock which produced Hutton's Vireos and a beautiful Townsend's Warbler.
One last stop at the refuge along Brooks Slough Road were two White-throated
Sparrows, one of which may have been genetically altered either with
albinism or cross-breeding.

Jan. 19, Monday, we concentrated on Cowlitz County from Woodland to Cougar.
The day started off meeting Wilson Cady who was birding on the Dike Road.
We had just spotted a couple of White-throated Sparrows which was the
beginning of the day of finding 11 different White-throateds. At Lyon's
Park near the entrance we found several more White-throated Sparrows along
with 14 California Quail where Marv Breece and I had seen them on Jan. 3.
Not thinking we had covered all the area good enough we doubled back on some
back roads and found 1 Clay-colored Sparrow along a weedy small ditch on
Roberson Road which runs off of Whalen Road. Other birds seen were 2
Copper's Hawks, 1 Thayer's Gull, Great Egrets, and approx. 500 Sandhill
Cranes. From Woodland we hit Merwin Dam where 51 Barrow's Goldeneyes were
crowding the Clark County side of the lake. At Speelyai Hatchery a Dipper
was playing hide-and-seek with us along the creek. Snow was blocking the
road heading up above Cougar so we headed home and celebrated at Who Song &
Larry's with great food.

Ken Knittle, Vancouver, WA
washingtonbirder at hotmail.com