Hi Tweeters,

I drove along the Columbian Gorge today with my kids Deyland and Cally. It was mostly a trip to watch the fish ladders at the Bonneville Dam, but I managed to sneak in a side trip to Lyle. We drove in on the Oregon side along Hwy 84. We must have seen at least 10 Ospreys along the way and perhaps twice as many Turkey Vultures.

Near Lyle, we did a fairly quick drive along Old Highway 8 (see Opperman, pp. 333-335). We quickly spotted 2 Lewis's Woodpeckers on a snag along the north shore of Rowland Lake. A few hundred yards farther up the road, near a bluff on the left, I was watching 2 Osprey and a Red-tailed Hawk circling and screaming at one another (and all being pestered by a few Cliff Swallows that had a colony on the cliff) when an Ash-throated Flycatcher landed on a nearby tree and started to hunt insects. A short distance farther, we stopped to watch a couple of W. Scrub-jays when a small flock of Lesser Goldfinches landed in a nearby tree. We stopped at the Lyle-Balch cemetery, but saw only 1 W. Wood-Peewee and some more W. Scrub-jays (it was during the hottest part of the day). Just past the cemetery, we saw a flock of Wild Turkeys (3 hens and 7 chicks of various sizes). We managed to scope out a basking turtle down at the pond, which I believe was a Western Pond Turtle. Finally, we!
saw an
other Lewis's Woodpecker near the junction of Balch Rd. and Old Highway 8.

On a piscean note, we saw lots of Steelhead, a few Shad, a couple of Chinook Salmon, and 2 or 3 Lamprey at the fish ladder. There are also lots of Pacific Sturgeon and Rainbow Trout at the nearby fish hatchery.

Good birding,

Lonnie Somer
Olympia, WA
wheelermombi at comcast.net