Subject: e. WA Tour
Date: Sep 19 18:28:16 2004
From: SGMlod at aol.com - SGMlod at aol.com


Greetings

My wife and I birded various portions of the Columbia Basin this weekend. A
real theme was the movement of montane species. These included

Cassin's Finch--- Washtucna
12 Townsend's Solitaires--- Washtucna
RBNuts --- everywhere; 26 at Washtucna alone
Pine Siskins --- 30 or so at Washtucna
Purple Finch --- Vantage
Evening Grosbeak --- Vantage
Brown Creeper --- Vantage

When I was in se. OR a week or so ago, Mountain Chickadees and Clark's
Nutcrackers were coming down into desert oases and I keep wondering if we are going
to see an incursion in WA's lowlands.

RB Nuts have even been appearing on Gambell, 200 miles off mainland AK this
fall.

The rarity highlights were mostly at Iowa Beef/Walla Walla River Delta. At
the Delta on Saturday we had an ad. basic plumage ARCTIC TERN at close range
before it seemed to move downstream. There were also 8 COMMON and 1 FORSTER'S
TERN there. At Iowa Beef I had the unusual experience of watching an AM
GOLDEN-PLOVER walk past a perched juv PARASITIC JAEGER. This was at the southernmost
pond. There were also 10 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and 2 SANDERLINGS.

At McNary Dam, the imm SABINE'S GULL remained; there were also 31 COMMON
TERNS and one FORSTER'S TERN.

At Washtucna, there was a calling (not singing) LEAST FLYCATCHER and at the
feedlot just n. of the Othello ponds (on the east side of the road) first thing
this morning there was an imm male TRICOLORED BLACKBIRD.

Finally, on the Old Vantage Hwy just e. of Kittitas there was an imm
FERRUGINOUS HAWK.

Cheers
Steven Mlodinow
SGMlod at aol.com
Everett WA