Subject: WA birding 05/31-06/01
Date: Jun 2 12:55:57 2004
From: Jason Paulios - jpaulios at earthlink.net


Hello all, pretty quiet out there in Tweeterland. Didn't anyone attend the
Wenas campout?

My brother Andy and his wife Amy were visiting from Wisconsin over the
weekend and we did some extensive birding yesterday. Before meeting up on
Monday they traveled around the Olympic Peninsula and had good views of
TUFTED PUFFINS at Cape Flattery. We met at the entrance to Rock Candy
Mountain in the Capitol Forest (Thurston County) and easily found Andy's
500th NA bird, RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER at a nest. Also here were:
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER and MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER. Higher up near the
traditional Mountain Quail spot we got good looks at a hybrid HERMIT X
TOWNSEND'S WARBLER (Singing Hermit song, yellow face/head, yellow below bib,
darker streaks along flanks, greenish back), many pure HERMIT WARBLERS and
heard a GRAY JAY which had me thinking the Mountain Quail had returned.

Later on the 31st we headed towards Ellensburg with stops along the way.
The Gold Creek Picnic Area at Hyak near Snoqualmie Pass had some good birds.
Here we saw 2 BLACK SWIFTS amongst the Vaux's Swifts (they all seemed to be
traveling above the river), a BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, R/NECKED DUCKS, SPOTTED
SANDPIPER, KILLDEER (I can't believe these are up here!), N. R/W SWALLOW,
"AUDUBON'S" WARBLER, B/T PIGEON, singing HERMIT THRUSH, and a female RUFOUS
HUMMINGBIRD. At one of the bridges nearby we saw a DIPPER fly up to the
nest.

That night was fairly windy in Ellensburg so we didn't try for Flammulated
Owl as planned, instead we focused on finding Poorwills. We ended up taking
Reecer Creek RD north out of Ellensburg and eventually found three COMMON
POORWILLS sitting in the middle of the road providing nice looks at the
white in the tail corners. Also along the road we heard a COMMON NIGHTHAWK
and some WILSON'S SNIPE.

Early the next morning (6/01) we stopped at the Quilomene Wildlife Area off
Old Vantage HWY for the sage-steppe birds. I had planned to hike in a ways
but we ended up seeing all three "required" species at the car! A SAGE
THRASHER flew in at the slamming of the car door, then two bickering SAGE
SPARROWS chased each other nearby and a BREWER'S SPARROW perched further out
singing away. On the drive out we saw LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS
(fledged young too) and VESPER SPARROW. Along Huntzinger RD we saw a LARK
SPARROW and WESTERN KINGBIRD with AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN and CASPIAN TERNS
out on the Columbia. Wanapum State Park was fairly birdy for so late in the
season with many migrant WESTERN WOOD-PEWEES. A passing young SHARP-SHINNED
HAWK stirred up the B/H GROSBEAKS and BULLOCK'S ORIOLES.

Along the Umptanum RD heading towards Wenas we saw a LEWIS'S WOODPECKER,
WESTERN and MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS, BREWER'S SPARROW, HOUSE WREN, and SAGE
THRASHER. We pulled into a small trailhead parking lot and had good
riparian-type birds including: a NASHVILLE WARBLER, singing MACGILLIVRAY'S
WARBLERS, LAZULI BUNTINGS, BULLOCK'S ORIOLES, ROCK WRENS and more
WOOD-PEWEES.

Wenas campground yielded all the targets with a bit of work. One lone pair
of weekend campers were left and they pointed us in the direction of the
WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKERS (Thanks for the tip). They were in the Ponderosas
at the back of the camp where the road goes up the hill (Hog Ranch RD?).
Also in the dryer Ponderosas in camp were: RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD, HAMMOND'S
FLYCATCHER, DUSKY FLYCATCHER, a lone silent GRAY FLYCATCHER, MOUNTAIN
CHICKADEE, "AUDUBON'S" WARBLER, PYGMY NUTHATCH, WESTERN TANAGER, RED
CROSSBILLS, CASSIN'S FINCH, a very cooperative male CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD and
a surprising TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE (I would have thought they were in higher
elevations now). Near the creek were: CASSIN'S VIREO, singing VEERY, HOUSE
WREN, HAIRY WOODPECKER, and PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS.

Maloy RD did not yield the traditional Gray Catbird but we did see a perched
male BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD on the power line.

Next we tried a new spot for me at Oak Creek RD off Hwy 12 in Yakima County.
It seems there was a rather extensive burn through here and as a result many
of the Oaks were dead and much of the understory was gone (if there ever was
any?). We did see some sharp looking LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS and LAZULI
BUNTINGS. Also here was what I think was a WESTERN FENCE LIZARD but I
didn't have my book with me and I later forgot what it looked like. I'm
fairly sure it wasn't an Alligator Lizard though, so there isn't much left.
This spot is also supposed to harbor WESTERN GRAY SQUIRRELS which I wanted
to see. I did see one "gray" squirrel clambering over some rocks, but the
tail didn't look very bushy and I thought there was some faint spotting on
the back. Probably was one of the ground squirrels.

We then spent over five hours searching for WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKERS near
White Pass. FR 1201 off Tieton RD had: 1 CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD, NASHVILLE
WARBLERS, "AUDUBON'S" WARBLERS, TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS, one very high elevation
WARBLING VIREO, a singing LINCOLN'S SPARROW, HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHERS, HERMIT
THRUSH, and one PILEATED WOODPECKER. We searched hard were there was
Western Larch present but came out empty handed.

Further west along HWY 12 we stopped at Dog Lake campground and heard a
couple GRAY JAYS, more "AUDUBON'S" WARBLERS, and we kept running into
Flickers way up here in the Larch trees...right habitat, wrong woodpecker.

At Leech Lake White Pass campground we made our last stand. Two sapsucker
species but no Williamson's. The only real dip of the weekend. We saw a
close-up RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER at the traditional spot in the westside of
camp. A surprising RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER was seen on the east end of the
lake in a tall dead snag with some EVENING GROSBEAKS. Near the horse
corrals we found lots of trees with sapsucker wells, but no birds. Near the
lake again we saw WILSON'S and YELLOW WARBLERS. VAUX'S SWIFTS flew over and
TOWNSEND'S SAPSUCKERS called from the treetops. On the lake were
RING-NECKED DUCKS and a SPOTTED SANDPIPER worked the edge.

Jason Paulios
Jpaulios at earthlink.net
Olympia, WA