Hi all,

My wife and I just completed a nine-day road trip to/from Yosemite National Park, where we met some of her family. We took 3 days to do the drive down and birded as much as the long driving days allowed. Even though birding wasn't the primary focus of the trip, we logged 119 species. The wide range of habitats on the trip generated a lot of lifers for me. I've listed species in 'as-seen' order on the trip and hopefully have avoided multiple listings. Obviously we saw many duplicate species in various locations on the trip.

The first day's drive was 500 miles down the east side of the mountains to Klamath Falls. We birded mostly from the car and brief roadside stops until near K-Falls. As many of you no doubt know, the K-Falls area is a spectacular place to bird. We stopped twice along the Little Deschutes River near Gilchrist, which is noted as the only place in Oregon where the Northern Waterthrush can be reliably found which we were not able to do. The bulk of our first day birding was done in Klamath Marsh NWR (known in some of the older books as Upper Klamath Forest NWR) which is located east of Highway 97 about 45 miles north of K-Falls, best accessed by (paved) Silver Lake Road. Silver Lake Road passes farmland, open pine forest, and crosses extensive Klamath Marsh with frequent road pulloffs. At the east end of the marsh off Silver Lake Road there is a (very primitive) forest road which heads south along the marsh to some open water at Wocus Bay on the SE edge of the marsh. Th!
is road
looks like it will simply stop somewhere in the middle of the woods, but with some persistence (and a sturdy car, preferably 4WD) you can follow it to forest road 43, which is a typical Oregon red gravel (and extremely dusty) way back to Highway 97. Take a map and additionally a GPS if you have one! The first day results yielded (in order seen):

BIRDING FROM ROAD IN WASHINGTON
AMERICAN CROW
AMERICAN ROBIN
BARN SWALLOW
BREWER'S BLACKBIRD
OSPREY
ROCK PIGEON
CANADA GOOSE
RED-TAILED HAWK
GREAT BLUE HERON
EUROPEAN STARLING
HOUSE SPARROW
MALLARD
MOURNING DOVE
CALIFORNIA QUAIL
BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE
AMERICAN KESTREL

QUICK STOP AT TOPPENISH NWR OBSERVATION DECK
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN
EASTERN KINGBIRD
PIED-BILLED GREBE
NORTHERN HARRIER
TURKEY VULTURE
SWAINSON'S HAWK

HIGHWAY 97 IN OREGON
COMMON RAVEN
DARK-EYED JUNCO
NORTHERN FLICKER

KLAMATH MARSH, OFF SILVER LAKE ROAD
SORA
RING-NECKED DUCK
AMERICAN COOT
WOOD DUCK
RUDDY DUCK
RED WINGED BLACKBIRD
MARSH WREN

WOCUS BAY "ROAD" AND ROAD 43
WESTERN WOOD PEWEE
DOWNY WOODPECKER
YELLOW RUMPED WARBLER
WESTERN TANAGER
SWAINSON'S THRUSH
COOPER'S HAWK
GRAY FLYCATCHER
COMMON NIGHTHAWK
BULLOCK'S ORIOLE

On day two we drove from K-Falls to Truckee, CA. We spent almost an entire morning birding the wonderful area south of K-Falls, including Indian Tom Lake, Lower Klamath NWR and Tulelake NWR. The latter two areas have "auto tour routes" good gravel roads that circle through the NWR's and allow great birding opportunities, even in summer. We could only imagine what this area would be like in the height of waterfowl migration. This morning yielded:

IN TOWN AND DRIVING TO INDIAN TOM LAKE
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH
DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT
GREAT EGRET

INDIAN TOM LAKE, KLAMATH LAKE NWR AND TULELAKE NWR
EARED GREBE
KILLDEER
BLACK-NECKED STILT
GADWALL
WILSON'S PHALAROPE
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD
LEAST SANDPIPER
WESTERN MEADOWLARK
Dozens of AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS, which breed here
BLUE-WINGED TEAL
TRICOLORED BLACKBIRD
BANK SWALLOW (a small colony in the bank of one of the dike sidewalls right along the auto tour route)
NORTHERN PINTAIL
BREWER'S SPARROW
SAVANNAH SPARROW
LONG-BILLED CURLEW
WHITE-FACED IBIS
BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON
RING-BILLED GULL
SPOTTED SANDPIPER
WESTERN KINGBIRD
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD (at the feeder in the Tulelake Visitor Center)
WESTERN GREBE
BALD EAGLE
CALIFORNIA GULL
CASPIAN TERN
FORSTER'S TERN
LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER
TREE SWALLOW (on road heading to Truckee)
VAUX'S SWIFT (ditto)
WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER (ditto cooperatively located at the top of a snag just off the road)

Day 3 was a drive from Truckee to Bishop, CA the latter destination a bit out of the way to Yosemite, in order to visit Mountain Light, a gallery displaying mostly Galen and Barbara Rowell's images.

ON THE ROAD FROM TRUCKEE TO BISHOP (including west shore of Lake Tahoe)
STELLAR'S JAY
COMMON MERGANSER
MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH
CLIFF SWALLOW
WARBLING VIREO
CLARK'S NUTCRACKER
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER

FISH SLOUGH, A SMALL STREAM RUNNING THROUGH SAGE STEPPE NEAR BISHOP
HORNED LARK
SAY'S PHOEBE
CANYON WREN
LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE off 5 Bridges Road

Day 4 was a part-day drive into Yosemite NP and through the Yosemite Valley loop to our hotel in Fish Camp. We spent a significant amount of early morning time photographing and birding at Mono Lake. When visiting Mono Lake, bird not only the dry areas around the tufas on the south side of the lake, but also the county park, complete with a boardwalk through nice riparian/marsh area down to the lake shore located on the north shore just off Highway 395. This park apparently is a major migrant trap in this area. Mono Lake has huge numbers of resident/nesting CALIFORNIA GULL and a significant EARED GREBE population and supposedly SNOWY PLOVER located in the NE corner of the lake, which we did not have time to visit. The lake is a key stopover point to tens of thousands of WILSON'S PHALAROPE, which eat frenetically to double their weight on brine shrimp for their final migratory push on to South American. These birds had just started to arrive several days before we g!
ot ther
e, and were "only" present in the hundreds. The Visitor Center at Mono Lake is a must stop, with a good library of birding books and information.

SAGE THRASHER (sagebrush area south of the lake)
WILSON'S WARBLER (County Park)
HERMIT THRUSH (ditto)
PINE SISKIN (ditto)
YELLOW WARBLER (ditto)

Then, up through Tioga Canyon (very windy), over Tioga Pass (at almost 10,000 feet elevation) and into Yosemite NP from the east entrance.

WHITE CROWNED SPARROW (high mountain meadow)
VIOLET GREEN SWALLOW (near our hotel)
BUSHTIT (ditto)
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER scoped from the hotel parking lot, which drew several curious people who were amazed at the detail provided by the scope

August 9th and 10th were spent mostly with family touring through the park, birding briefly at various stops. A location that held much promise but was only touched for a few minutes is the Meadow Loop trail (3.5 miles) just south of Wawona.

HOUSE WREN
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH
LINCOLN'S SPARROW
BLACK PHOEBE Meadow Loop Trail

On the 11th, we headed back to K-Falls but got a late start and added no new trip species. On the 12th, we drove from K-Falls to Sisters to stay with friends, and spent the morning again combing the Lower Klamath and Tulelake NWR areas, resulting in a few more new adds for the trip.

AMERICAN AVOCET
SNOWY EGRET
LESSER YELLOWLEGS
GREATER YELLOWLEGS
GREEN HERON
SANDHILL CRANE

The Sandhill Cranes (a pair) really reinforced the 'never assume anything' rule. We were driving along the auto tour route and saw two fairly distant large birds in a marshy field and immediately assumed them to be two of the ubiquitous Great Blue Herons. Fortunately, I put my binocs on them anyway and the bright red patches on the heads was a very pleasant surprise. Then another drive-through of Klamath Marsh NWR and a quick stop at Wocus Bay Road gave two more additions.

FERRUGINOUS HAWK
HAIRY WOODPECKER

The environs around Sisters (Indian Ford Meadow Preserve, Metolius River headwaters overlook, and our friends' house) yielded a few more trip birds.

WESTERN BLUEBIRD
CASSIN'S VIREO
LARK SPARROW
BELTED KINGFISHER
PYGMY NUTHATCH
PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER
CASSIN'S FINCH

The final day, we detoured to go through Rock Creek canyon on Rock Creek road, east of Goldendale. The wind was a handicap here, but did result in a couple more additions to the trip list.

ROCK WREN
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE
LEWIS'S WOODPECKER
CEDAR WAXWING

Notable along Rock Creek were the high numbers of LEWIS'S WOODPECKERS about midway up the road from the Columbia. We were at first pleased to see just one lone bird fairly close to the road in a snag. However, we then ran into an adult feeding a youngster. Then we came to a tree right by the road from which at least eight more flew off when we stopped the car. Previously, I had only ever seen two of these birds in total.

If anyone is interested in more info on any of the areas mentioned along the way, feel free to contact me off list. I did get some good photographs, but between work and the bad summer cold I managed to come down with right at the end of the trip, I haven't worked them up for the website yet.

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com