Subject: Large numbers of Sandhill Cranes, but a miss on the flycatcher
Date: Sep 19 22:06:15 2004
From: Rob McNair-Huff - rob at whiterabbits.com


Natalie and I took a pair of fellow members of the Tahoma Audubon Society
on a whirlwind birding jaunt around the Moses Lake/Potholes/Dodson Road
area today, and although we missed seeing the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
this morning despite an hour or more spent scanning the wires, rabbit
brush, and any other low perch we could come up with along Randolph Road,
we still had a great trip. The main highlight was first hearing and then
watching hundreds of SANDHILL CRANES soaring from one thermal to another
as they made their way south on their migration. We saw three main groups
fly over as we ate a late lunch at the Potholes Wildlife Area, and each
group held 200-300 cranes soaring so high that they could only be seen
reliably with binoculars.

We saw a couple hundred cranes on the ground feeding in a corn field
along Dodson Road near the intersection with Highway 26 later in the
afternoon. They may not be rare birds, but it is hard to beat hearing the
distinctive sound of hundreds of Sandhill Cranes as they migrate en-masse!

White-crowned and Chipping Sparrows are numerous in the Potholes area
right now, and we were treated to close looks at a Hairy Woodpecker,
numerous Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Western Tanager and a speedy Merlin
hunting in what turned out to be a bird-rich environment at the end of
the road at the Potholes Wildlife Area. A Greater Yellowlegs and a single
Pine Siskin rounded out the birding before we made our way back toward
Tacoma via Dodson Road and Lower Crab Creek Road.

Happy birding!

--
Rob McNair-Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
Author of Birding Washington (Falcon Publishing, 2004)
and Insider's Guide to the Olympic Peninsula (Globe Pequot, 2001)
White Rabbit Publishing ---- http://www.whiterabbits.com
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html