Hi Tweets,

Sorry for the late posting, but Barbara and I got away for a Memorial Day
weekend in eastern
Washington. We had good weather, partly cloudy skies, with a few sprinkles
from time to time.
On Sunday it turned windy, but birding was good anyway, we finished the trip
with 127 species. We
left about noon Friday 5/28, and after pauses on the TEANAWAY ROAD and at
LIBERTY
(DeLorme p. 66) we spent an hour in SWAKANE CANYON, a few miles north of
Wenatchee just
off Alt US 97. Our last stop was the CASSIMER BAR (DeLorme p 100), at the
confluence of the
Okanogan and Columbia Rivers. This area has large numbers of Russian Olives,
which attract birds, give off a characteristic, pleasant smell, but also
make Barbara sneeze:

Double-crested Cormorant; Canada Goose; American Wigeon; Northern Shoveler;
Common
Merganser; Great Blue Heron; Turkey Vulture; Osprey; Northern Harrier;
SHARP-SHINNED
HAWK (1 at Liberty); Red-tailed Hawk; American Kestrel; Ring-necked Pheasant
(3 at Cassimer
Bar); California Quail; Killdeer; Common Loon (3 in Columbia near Pateros);
Rock Pigeon;
Mourning Dove; Belted Kingfisher; Northern Flicker; Western Wood Pewee;
Western Kingbird;
Eastern Kingbird; Steller's Jay; Black-billed Magpie; American Crow; Common
Raven; Western
Bluebird; American Robin; European Starling; Marsh Wren; Tree Swallow;
Violet-green Swallow;
Cliff Swallow; Black-capped Chickadee; Mountain Chickadee; House Sparrow;
American Gold-
finch; Purple Finch; Cassin's Finch; House Finch; Yellow Warbler; Wilson's
Warbler; Yellow-
breasted Chat (1 in Swakane Canyon); Song Sparrow; Chipping Sparrow; Spotted
Towhee;
Lazuli Bunting; Bullock's Oriole (4 in Swakane Canyon); Red-winged
Blackbird; Western
Meadowlark; Brewer's Blackbird;Brown-headed Cowbird. (Total species: 53)

Saturday, May 29: We birded from TONASKET to LOOMIS along the
Loomis-Oroville Road, finding good numbers of birds especially in WHITESTONE
LAKE. We spent the balance of the morning at CONNERS LAKE in the Sinlahekin
Valley. After lunch we stopped briefly at the south end of PALMER LAKE, then
continued further to CHOPAKA MOUNTAIN ROAD and birded north to road's end.
We returned to Omak via the SIMILKAMEEN RIVER and Oroville, making a 90
minute detour underway from TONASKET to HAVILLAH (DeLorme 114-115):

New/noteworthy species: Pied-billed Grebe; RED-NECKED GREBE (2 nesting at
Conners Lake, 2
nesting at Whitestone Lake); Wood Duck; Mallard; Cinnamon Teal (1 male at
Conners Lake);
Canvasback (1 male on Chopaka Rd); Redhead (1 male at Whitestone Lake);
Barrows Goldeneye
(1 female on Chopaka Rd); Bald Eagle (2 over Sinlahekin Valley); Swainson's
Hawk (1 dark-phase
bird perched by Tonasket-Havillah Rd); Golden Eagle (2 overhead near Loomis,
1 being harassed
by kingbird); GRAY PARTRIDGE (2 on Chopaka Rd); American Coot; Spotted
Sandpiper (3 at
south end of Palmer Lake); Ring-billed Gull; Vaux's Swift (2 over Loomis);
White-throated Swift
(c 8 on Chopaka Rd); Black-chinned Hummingbird; Calliope Hummingbird;
Lewis's Woodpecker
(2 on Chopaka Rd, 4 along Similkameen River); Red-naped Sapsucker; Willow
Flycatcher (1 on
Chopaka Rd); Say's Phoebe; Clark's Nutcracker (2 in Loomis); Cedar Waxwing;
Mountain
Bluebird (1 by Tonasket-Havillah Rd); Gray Catbird; Red-breasted Nuthatch;
Canyon Wren;
Northern Rough-winged Swallow; Barn Swallow; Common Yellowthroat; Dark-eyed
Junco;
Savannah Sparrow; Lark Sparrow; Western Tanager; Yellow-headed Blackbird,
BOBOLINK
(2 in fields by Chopaka Rd); Totals: day -- 82 species; trip -- 92 species.

Sunday, May 30: We birded the REPUBLIC PONDS, the SANPOIL RIVER from
Republic south
to Roosevelt Lake, including the WEST FORK of the Sanpoil to the campground
on FS Road 205
(Opperman, Birding Guide to Washington, p. 464-465). We met other Seattle
birders at the 205
campground, like us trying to locate American Redstart, Northern
Waterthrush, and other
typically "eastern species," but without success. The presence of Northern
Pygmy Owls in
the Road 205 campground may have kept these quiet and under cover, and high
water in the
Sanpoil together with breezy weather also made the search difficult. We
crossed into Lincoln
County in the late afternoon, and birded SWANSON LAKES WILDLIFE AREA,
between
Cresston and Davenport (Opperman, Birding Guide to Washington, pp 397-99).

New/noteworthy species: Ruddy Duck; Gadwall; Green-winged Teal; Blue-winged
Teal;
Northern Shoveler, Lesser Scaup; Gray Partridge (2 on road at Swanson
Lakes); Ruffed
Grouse (1 near West Fork of Sanpoil); Wilson's Snipe; WILSON'S PHALAROPE (2
at Republic
Ponds; 10 at Swanson Lakes); American Avocet; BLACK TERN (2 at Swanson
Lakes); NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL (1 young bird calling and hopping about in small
trees at Road 205 campground, still with some down and pinfeathers); Common
Nighthawk; Downy Woodpecker; Pacific-slope Flycatcher; Veery; Swainson's
Thrush; Sage Thrasher (4 seen at Swanson Lakes); House Wren; Bank Swallow;
Horned Lark; Nashville Warbler; Townsend's Warbler; MacGillivray's Warbler.
Totals: day -- 77; trip -- 115.

Monday, May 31: We got coffee at the Starbucks in Moses Lake, then birded
along DODSON
ROAD, and went west along LOWER CRAB CREEK to the Columbia. We didn't see
much
along the OLD VANTAGE HIGHWAY, possibly because we were getting worried
about all the
other people taking I-90 back to Western Washington. When it took us an hour
to get from
Ellensburg to CLE ELUM, we took a two-hour break to bird along the NORTHERN
PACIFIC
PONDS before returning home. As we came over the WEST SEATTLE BRIDGE we
noted the
Peregrine Falcon on the western tower.

New/noteworthy species: Great Egret; Swainson's Hawk (1 perched by Old
Vantage Highway);
PEREGRINE FALCON (ok, it WAS in West Seattle); Sora (1 flew into the
cattails in front of our
car at the pond at Dodson & Frenchman Hills Rds); LONG-BILLED CURLEW (4 in
field just east
of Dodson Rd); Black-necked Stilt; California Gull; Caspian Tern; BURROWING
OWL (1 at home
just east of Dodson & Frenchman Hills Rds); Red-naped Sapsucker (parents
bringing food to
nestlings in tree adjacent to Northern Pacific Ponds in Cle Elum);
Loggerhead Shrike (1 on Lower
Crab Creek); VEERY (very likely 2 nesting pairs adjacent to Northern Pacific
Ponds in Cle Elum);
Rock Wren (1 singing below the Gingko Park Visitor Center on the Columbia);
Pine Siskin;
White-crowned Sparrow. Totals: day -- 65; Trip total -- 127