Hello Alan,

Thank you for your detailed accounts and observations of the Gray-crowned Rosy Finches near Wanapum Dam yesterday,as we would have enjoyed staying longer to see the great show you noted! It was nice to see just a few of the birds you also saw yesterday! Hopefully many other birders will also get to see these great birds,as they linger along the steep cliff sides.

Sincerely,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
----- Original Message -----
From: Alan and Wendy Roedell
To: 'tweeters'
Cc: twweir at hotmail.com
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 10:05 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Gray-crowned Rosy-finches


Hi tweets,

Wendy and I headed over Snoqualmie Pass on Sunday AM to see what we could see.

Highlights on an extremely windy day were a dark-morph Roughlegged Hawk along hwy 10 east of Cle Elum, GH Owl along 97 NW of Ellensburg, Prairie Falcon near Hungry Junction Rd. north of Ellensburg, and a flock of more than 100 Gray-crowned Rosy-finches along Huntzinger Rd south of Wanapum Dam. Just at dusk they were whirling in flocks of 15 or more to seek shelter in the cliffs where Cliff Swallows nest in the spring. During the half-hour that we observed, flock after flock would land on the cliff-face, forage for a bit and then creep into tiny crevices to roost through the night. As time went on, more often than not a bird would try to get into an already occupied crevice. Then a fight would break out. Usually the occupant would drive the interloper off, but sometimes they would tumble down the cliff face in a tangle of beaks, claws, and feathers until the victor would fly back to the disputed crevice and get ready to defend its space. We watched until the cold forced us to seek our roost in the van where we could crank up the heater.



Good birding, Alan Roedell, roedell at speakeasy.net 206-522-0809



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