Hi Tweets,

Yesterday Barb, Gina Sheridan, Harold and Karen Cottet, and I birded
several locations in Grant County. The weather was fantastic, with bright
sunshine and light winds. However, the morning birding was pretty slow.
Potholes Reservoir. Perch Point, and Potholes State Park produced little
with the exception of a nice male RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.
The thickets along Frenchman Hills Road held the usual suspects including
many flickers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, robins, juncos, white-crowns, a few
Cedar Waxwings, and an obliging Townsend's Solitaire.
Our next stop was the site of the Eurasian Collared-Doves. As we viewed a
Sharp-shinned Hawk and a Red-tailed Hawk perched in the same tree, the
Sharpie took flight. Immediately doves began flying up from the ground. We
were able to locate 10 EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE and view them at fairly close
range.
North Potholes Reserve (AKA The Heron Rookery) was fairly quiet. Two mature
Bald Eagles flew in while we searched for the resident Bushtit flock. Large
numbers of waterfowl plied the open water on the refuge side of the road.
Eventually Barb and Karen located the foraging flock and called us over.
Gina was very happy as she had tried for these interior race birds several
times without success.
We then spent some time viewing the waterfowl at Neppel Landing Park where
we were unable to locate the Eurasian Wigeon. The usual suspects were there,
and included both divers and puddlers. Two Cackling Geese of the minima race
were easily picked out from the large numbers of geese. The best birds were
three wintering Greater Yellowlegs.
We then spent a little time walking an area known as Pelican Point looking
for Winter Wren and Hermit Thrush. We were unsuccessful, but the area has
much potential and we plan on returning. There were many birds here, just
not our target birds.

Cheers and Good Birding

Doug Schonewald
Moses Lake, WA
dschone8 at donobi.net
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