Hello Tweets,NW Inlanders and other birders,

This afternoon my mother and I spent a few hours between 1:30pm-5pm birding the Vantage-Wanapum Dam area of Kittitas Co. with our main target species being the adult male Tufted Duck previously reported by Denny Granstrand and other birders. The weather conditions were superb all afternoon with clear skies and NO wind! We located the Tufted Duck immediately upon our arrival at 1:30pm along the Columbia River(immediately north of Wanapum State Park)along Huntzinger Rd.,where the bird remained in close association with a large scaup flock,being primarily Greater Scaup. The Tufted Duck was fairly easy to locate and keep track of,as it swam amongst the other scaup back and forth along the Columbia River and viewing conditions were excellent from our vantage point along Huntzinger Rd. We viewed the Tufted Duck in our spotting scopes until 2:30pm,as well as obtaining many photographs of this fine bird! Our photos are not of the best quality due to the distance from us to the bird and how active the bird remained at times,but are good enough for our records. Anyhow, a great bird to see and for Denny to find on the 20th of February and perhaps it will continue at this location for many other birders to see. We somewhat suspect that this could be the same individual than reported by Doug Schonewald at Perch Pont(Potholes Reservoir)on the 13th of February,which remained at that location until at least the 14th of February.

We have placed 9 photos of the Tufted Duck taken this afternoon onto our website,which can be viewed at the following link: http://www.pbase.com/godwit/tufted_duck/


In addition to the Tufted Duck we located many other highlights in the general area,primarily along Huntzinger Rd. To begin the adult male Harlequin Duck was also present while viewing the Tufted Duck,but kept to itself as it swam along the immediate shoreline north of Wanapum State Park. A very good bird for eastern WA in winter and like Denny was our first personal record in winter in eastern WA! After viewing the Tufted Duck we worked our way down Huntzinger Rd. to just north of the large railroad trestle over the Columbia River,then working our way to the boat launch at Vantage just north of I-90. After 3:30pm we spent the remainder of the afternoon until 5pm slowly working our way down along Huntzinger Rd. to the Wanapum Dam area. Additional highlights encountered along this route included the following:

3 Eared Grebes
5 Barrow's Goldeneyes
5 Bald Eagles
1 Northern Harrier
3 Am.Kestrels(including a single pair harassing a group of 50 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches at a nightly roost)
1 adult Mew Gull(observed with 13 Ring-billed Gulls and 3 Herring Gulls along Huntzinger Rd.(on a rocky island within the Columbia River)south of the I-90 bridge)
1 Say's Phoebe(last bird of the day)
2 Rock Wrens
1 Loggerhead Shrike
3 Sage Sparrows(observed singing in vast Sage areas along Huntzinger Rd. north of the large railroad trestle over the Columbia River)
50 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches(observed at 4:15pm foraging along steep cliff sides at the "usual" Huntzinger Rd. location south of Wanapum Dam)


Our mammal highlight of the day was a single adult Coyote observed in natural area south of the I-90 bridge.


Earlier in the day en route to Vantage a few additional sightings of the day included a single Northern Pygmy Owl observed perched atop a large conifer tree along Hwy.18 north of the Green River bridge followed by up to 8 Tundra Swans along I-90(eastbound)near MP 104 west of Ellensburg.



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net