Tweets - the inaugural Cle Elum CBC went successfully on Thursday, despite
the weather. We weren't sure what to expect, but what we got matched none
of the forecasts. It SNOWED HARD, from about 8:30 until the end of the
count, without a let-up. Ten or twelve inches of new snow fell DURING the
count. It is a real tribute to all of the teams that nobody threw in the
towel early. All teams forged on at least until mid-afternoon, pretty much
only giving up having exhausted all accessible sites. I think 18 birders
counted overall, plus (I'm hoping) some feeder counters.

I don't have all of the data yet, but this year we tallied at least 66
species, a few more than last year's trial run. Also of interest were the
fairly large number of species seen this year but not last year. This
pushes the Cle Elum cummulative list to over 75 species.

Seeing birds was very difficult, given the snow. Some of the more
interesting birds noted were:

WESTERN SCREECH-OWL that gave us great looks at around 7:00 a.m. at the
Teanaway river crossing off SR-10. Scott Downes, owling alone up the
Teanaway, had GREAT HORNED (2), BARRED, and NORTHERN SAW-WHET as well.

COMMON REDPOLL, just one, seen at point-blank range by the Liberty Sector,
in the town of Liberty

BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER, with a couple of Hairys and a Downy, at the burn
off Thorp Prairie Rd., near Elk Heights.

MERLIN, with freshly caught prey in the Sunlight Waters development near Elk
Heights

Last year we had seven AMERICAN DIPPER; this year, just one, seen by Peter
Carr on the Swauk Ranch property near where Swauk Creek flows into the
Yakima River.

The birds were generally very hard to find except at feeders, and I suspect
many of the smaller birds were hunkered down somewhere for the duration.

My thanks to all who came out for the count - a good mix of westsiders and
eastsiders.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net