Hi Tweeters,

Jan and I visited Walla Walla County this past weekend, mostly to do some
sightseeing but also to try a little birding. The birding proved to be
pretty slow and we missed all of the hoped-for species like Stilt
Sandpiper, Franklin's Gull, and White-faced Ibis. However, we did have
one sighting of interest yesterday (Monday) morning about 10 miles west of
the city of Walla Walla near the intersection of Frog Hollow and McDonald
Roads, which is just a mile north of the Oregon border. At about 9:20
a.m., we encountered a small kettle of circling Swainson's Hawks, which
were obviously on their southward migration. A total of 21 birds were
present, which included one Red-tailed Hawk. The birds were probably just
starting out for the day since they weren't particularly high in the sky
and at least 5-10 others were still perched on nearby power poles or on
the ground in adjacent fields. This is the first kettle of hawks that
I've seen in years, making it pretty exciting.

The other notable experience of the day was stopping at the Tyson Slop
Ponds along Dodd Road north of Wallula. My wife has graciously tolerated
plenty of trips to somewhat smelly sewage treatment ponds over the years
while I birded, but this site stands alone for putridness. Needless to
say, the ponds didn't get scanned as closely as I would have liked. This
is one place NOT to bring your non-birding spouse.

Gary Wiles
Olympia, WA
wilesharkey at yahoo.com



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