Carolyn and I took a quick, little 200 mile birding outing today. Everyone else east of the mountains was in Othello looking at cranes. We were scouting out areas for an April 10 Blue Mountain Audubon Society field trip. From Walla Walla we went north through the Palouse Hills, Lyons Ferry State Park, Palouse Falls State Park, Washtuchna, and back home through Dayton.

Very few passerines--lots of goldfinch, however. Friends who went to Othello yesterday saw 3 Northern Shrike. These birds have seemed fairly common the past month or so. I was surprised that we did not see any today. Violet-Green Swallows at Palouse Falls, but no White-throated Swifts.

We did go up to Washtuchna. Very dry and no birds.

What we saw were raptors. At least 80% of the nests we investigated had sitting birds. Almost all were red-tails, except for one Great Horned Owl nest--and two Ferruginous Hawk nests, which were a real treat.

The highlight of the trip was a pair of Peregrines at Palouse Falls. These were beautiful adult birds. They flew around for almost 5 minutes. Then one of them disappeared on the cliff below us, flew to the opposite cliff, and devoured a bird--a pigeon, I think, from the feathers we saw flying around. Both perched on the opposite cliff for 30 minutes. I showed them to about a dozen people. Sadly, most were not very impressed by these magnificent and beautiful birds. But one group was thrilled, especially a spry 91 year old lady.

I think in the past two years we have only seen single peregrines here. I am not certain about this and will check with friends.

I am hoping we have some early spring arrivals by April 10.

Joe Corvino