Here some of the highlights of a 3-day trip that Mike Fleming and I took
this weekend. The first 1.5 days were dedicated to look for migrants in
eastern WA. We caught 2 Baird's Sandpiper at the County Line Ponds near
Othello and had a variety of decent birds at Washtucna on 09/09 and 09/10
which included Dusky, Hammond's, Gray and Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Prairie
Falcon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Fox, Lincoln's and Golden-crowned Sparrow
and a good mix of regular warblers. The next day, we spent a couple of hours
at Wenatchee Confluence SP adding Nashville and Black-throated Gray Warbler
to our list of a total of 8 warbler species. We also found a Fox Sparrow and
2 Gray Catbirds along the trail. Unfortunately, we were not able to pick out
a rarity.

This morning we birded the Eightmile northwest of Winthrop for a few hours.
Birding was slow and the area was virtually devoid of migrants.
Nevertheless, we had 3 separate Northern Pygmy-Owls (1 at Flat CG off
FR5130, 1 at 1.9mi into FR5220, 1 at 9.6mi into FR5130) and 3+ Ruffed Grouse
(at 11.9mi into FR5130).

This afternoon we spent a couple of hours at the July-4th-weekend burn that
occured a few miles northeast of Winthrop. To get to the spot, take E.
Chewuch Rd north out of Winthrop, turn left at Bear Creek Rd heading east
(this is the turnoff to Pearrygin Lake SP) and follow the road for 3.6mi.
Turn left onto FR100 and left again 0.4mi after that. Park near the gate
(after just another 0.1mi) and walk the gravel/dirt road until you get to a
fork, take the right road and continue until you hit the burn and 2 blueish
colored outhouses. This is an easy 0.75mi walk one-way. In this general area
we had:

Golden Eagle (1 adult off Bear Creek Rd northeast of Winthrop)
Evening Grosbeak (4 in burn)
Black-backed Woodpecker (2, possibly 3 in burn just upslope from the
outhouses)
White-headed Woodpecker (2 at gate mentioned above)

The burn area was very active with about 75 Hairies and 10 Downies, a
gazillion of bluebirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Red- and White-breasted
Nuthatches and a few Clark's Nutcrackers. Well worth a visit!

Stefan Schlick
Bellevue, WA