Tweeters and Inland Birders,

While birding in Okanogan and Chelan Counties on May 25, I made a
brief stop on Highway 97 at the mouth of the Okanogan River, just east
of Brewster. I noted several DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS roosting at the
water's edge right at the river mouth. Gradually, I became aware that
there was a much larger number of cormorants in some large cottonwoods
just upstream from the river mouth (but below the Highway 97 bridge),
and that in fact they were nesting there! I counted at least 50
cormorants, including at least 20 occupied nests, plus 2 GREAT BLUE
HERON nests in the middle of the colony.

Of course I am aware of the big cormorant/heron/egret colony at the
north end of Potholes Reservoir (which in fact I visited on May 1 this
year). However, I was unaware that cormorants were nesting at the
Okanogan River mouth. It may well be that this colony is very well
known to local birders and to WDFW staff, but it seems to be a fairly
new colony. There was no report of cormorants nesting anywhere near
this location during the Washington Breeding Bird Atlas.

As I watched activity at the colony, I soon realized that not all the
"big black birds" in the cottonwoods were cormorants. At the north end
of the group of cottonwoods were at least 7 large black birds which
turned out to be TURKEY VULTURES. Three more vultures were circling
nearby, and probably would have joined those in the cottonwoods soon
(it was about 8:00 PM). So the same group of big cottonwoods included
a Double-crested Cormorant colony and a Turkey Vulture roost!

If someone has time, it would be worthwhile to check out this location
in more detail, to get a more exact count of the cormorant nests and
of the number of roosting vultures. It may well be that there are 20
or 30 or more roosting vultures, but that I left before most of them
came in.

Wonders never cease!

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net