Subject: [Tweeters] Okanogan and Ferry Counties
Date: May 31 17:27:21 2005
From: washingtonbirder - washingtonbirder at hotmail.com


Memorial weekend found Marv Breece, Mark Houston and myself birding parts of both Okanogan and Ferry Counties. We began in Lincoln County to track down the Burrowing Owl near Davenport and Least Flycatcher at the Davenport Cemetery thanks to Gina Sheridan. Our first stop in Nespelem produced our first of the year Common Nighthawk. Other birds seen near a marshy area were Veery, Catbirds, and Yellow-breasted Chats. Near Big Goose Lake a Loggerhead Shrike stirred up a small flock of foraging Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the Sage. We birded our way up onto the Colville Plateau. Duley Lake didn't have much of anything outstanding. Still on the Colville Plateau heading towards Omak we found Sage Thashers, Gray Flycatcher, Avocet, and White-breasted Nuthatch. Omak area was very warm and not much bird activity so we headed up to Loup Loup Campground. A bad time of day, but we did find a Williamson's Sapsucker, plus many forest birds that are common there. We spent quite awhile working our way up the Twisp River hoping to find a Harlequin Duck, but we could not find very many spots to view the river. Returning back down the river we stopped to view a Lewis's Woodpecker and found an even better bird for the area, a Purple Finch. Since Saturday was the hottest day we headed for Harts Pass. The road was blocked by snow a mile above the Ranger Station. Pine Grosbeaks, American Pipit, Three-toed Woodpecker were seen. We spent the night and heard a distant Common Poorwill which must be summer residents up there as this is my third time to have them around Harts Pass. The next day we headed down and found a Yellow-breasted Chat at 5100 ft. elevation. This was across the road and up the slope from where FR 205 takes off. This is the highest sighting in elevation here in Washington State for me. It may be just passing through.

Our next area we covered was in northeastern Okanogan County west of Molson where we slowed up for a couple of Swainson's Hawks and Mark heard a Clay-colored Sparrow, so we stopped and found an odd looking and sounding Clay-colored, which may have been a cross with another sparrow. Not much farther we did find a normal looking Clay-colored Sparrow. Near Wauconda we found a Northern Waterthrush after just having viewed a Great Gray Owl. After dark we were heading south of Republic just north of the 10-mile campground when our car flushed a Common Poorwill which had been roosting on the shoulder of the road. That night in the 10-mile campground we heard none as the noise of the creek was too loud. This campground is the Veery capitol of Washington State as we were driven out of our sleeping bags due to too many Veeries that one couldn't hear anything else. Bobolinks were seen at two different locations along the Sanpoil River valley. Our most unusual birds were a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers which we the size of Downy Woodpeckers, but had the longer bill and sounded like Hairy Woodpeckers. Both the female and male were bringing food into the nest hole. I have never seen anything like this before. Is there a smaller subspecies that I am unaware of? If they were offspring of a Hairy X Downy pair then they would have to be brother and sister as they were both small and equal in size. Marv attempted to photograph them as they would split like greased lightning out of the nest hole. Perhaps we looked like a predator. A flock of Caspian Terns were seen as we crossed the Keller Ferry as our last quality bird.

Ken Knittle
Washington Birder newsletter
2604 NE 80th Street
Vancouver, WA 98665
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