Hi Tweeters,

This morning I found the Eurasian Collared-Dove perched atop a telephone
pole between Lilac Lane and the west side of Blossom Dr. in Moxee. It flew
several times into trees along Blossom Dr. before it finally
disappeared. It did stay on top of the telephone pole long enough for me
to get more photos.

Late this afternoon I headed out to Black Rock Valley along Hwy 24 east of
Moxee trying for the Ferruginous Hawk that the YVAS field trip found
yesterday. I dipped on it.

I stopped several times as I drove east and scanned the power poles and
towers looking for raptors. I found three Prairie Falcons and two
Red-tailed Hawks. At about milepost 28 there is a quonset hut north of the
highway. In the field on both sides of the dirt road up to the hut there
were Long-billed Curlews. I saw six or seven. As I was trying to get
photos of one curlew, I nearly stepped on a curlew nest. The female curlew
startled me when she flushed from the nest, doing her broken-wing display
trying to lure me away from the nest. I got several photos of her and the
nest, then left quickly so that she would return to her nest. Curlew eggs
are a light olive color with brown spots and are a little larger than I
expected. They are quite pretty. The nest is made of dried grasses.

Also in the field were quite a few Horned Larks. One posed nicely on an
old fence post.

All of these photos are in the new photos folder on my website.

Denny Granstrand

* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
* Denny's bird photos can be seen online at: *
http://granstrand.net/gallery/