Subject: [Tweeters] Okanogan county
Date: Jun 18 06:11:26 2005
From: Joseph V Higbee - jvhigbee at hotmail.com


The last two weeks I've made two trips to okanogan county for a total of
about 6 days of birding and photography. My primary target was GRASSHOPPER
SPARROW. I got him! Also hoped for was CLAY-COLORED SPARROW and the more
common BREWER'S SPARROW. Got them too! Those three are life birds for me, so
of course I didn't have photos of them, which is my main objective.
Other birds I was looking to see and photograph include breeding plumage
RED-NECKED GREBE, SAGE THRASHER, LARK SPARROW, VESPER'S SPARROW, BOBOLINK,
and
GRAY CATBIRD, another life bird. Some that were common were, WILLOW
FLYCATCHER, WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE, EASTERN KINGBIRD, BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, CEDAR
WAXWING, and HORNED LARK.
I saw three of what I used to think of as eating species, BLUE GROUSE,
CHUKAR, and the everywhere you look MOURNING DOVE.
Lot's of other birds but these, with the exception of the doves, were the
'biggies' for me. You may notice that some of the birds have food in their
mouth. In fact, it was hard to get photos without. Many were taking the food
to young in the nest. Please be aware that care is taken not to disturb or
stress the birds. I use a long lense and stand very still for long periods
of time and move slowly when in their territory. Photos are at
http://www.pbase.com/jvhigbee/current
The clay-colored sparrow and the chukar are kind of fuzzy but I couldn't
resist using them anyway.
All birds were found at locations noted in Oppermans 'a Birder's Guide to
Washington'.

Joseph Higbee
Spanaway, WA
Mailto: jvhigbee at hotmail.com