Hi all,

On the 3rd, I got a reasonably early start and made my first stop at the Cle Elum RR Ponds, where I ran into and temporarily joined forces with the group from Ohio who are on an intensive Washingtonian sampler birding trip. The most notable sightings were at the intersection of the access road and the road to the fish hatchery (which, unfortunately, was closed the entire four days from Saturday through today). In the thickets on the north side of the road (toward the freeway) at the intersection, we all had good looks at: YELLOW WARBLER, MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER, VEERY, (which uncharacteristically flew to a wide open branch ten feet away from the group and sat fully in the open for at least ten seconds), WHITE BREASTED NUTHATCH, and GRAY CATBIRD, all the while serenaded by the OSPREY calls from the nest up on the ridge. (The previous day when I stopped at this same location, there was a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK sitting in some dead branches on the hatchery side of the bridge for !
a good
30 minutes)

After this, the Ohioans headed off to their next destination and I took the back way over to the Elk Heights burn. [If you're not familiar with the non-freeway route, as you leave the RR Ponds, turn R under the freeway - technically this is illegal and you have to turn left and circle back - and across the Yakima River. Follow this road, which turns left and then shortly Upper Peoh Pt. Road turns off to your R. Take Upper Peoh and follow it as it climbs up and contours the ridge through farmland and woodlots - with plenty of birds along the way. This road eventually crosses the freeway (to the north side), then crosses over the main Yakima irrigation canal (pulloffs and good opportunities here, including a TOWNSEND'S WARBLER on the 2nd). Continue on the road and you arrive at the Elk Heights burn area on the left.

I spent almost an hour at the burn, walking up toward the ridge crest as others have described, and found one of the BLACK BACKED WOODPECKER juveniles pretty easily, along with plenty of other species (sure is easy to find birds without all those inconvenient leaves in the way!) including RED BREASTED NUTHATCH, WESTERN BLUEBIRD, HAIRY WOODPECKER, WESTERN WOOD PEWEE, AND RED-TAILED HAWK (2) which soared very close overhead. The hawks were interesting, in that one was a dark morph and the other a light morph - nice to be able to compare them flying that close together and not very high off the deck. Then on to Vantage to find the Black Throated Sparrow. Note to self: looking for sparrows in sage country in the afternoon in 97 degree heat is probably not smart. Based on my detailed observations, there are no sparrows of any species - including House and Song - within a 15 mile radius of Vantage. The only evidence of any bird life was a few swallows, and a localized race of!
invisi
ble Rock Wrens. Apparently they did not mind the heat because there was plenty of singing going on. However, if not invisible, they were at least wearing cloaking devices. [Yes, this part is tongue in cheek, lest anyone think otherwise.]

This morning (the 4th), not wanting to go far enough away to deal with holiday-return traffic, I got to the sewage plant parking lot for Spencer Island fairly early. Whereupon, I realized I had my camera gear, log book, guidebook and all other necessities...except my binocs(!!). Nor did I have my scope, which I'd (purposely in this case) left home after deciding to carry my big camera/lens/tripod on this trip. Even with a big lens and a 1.4X extender, a camera makes a really poor substitute for binocs/scope. Does this faux pas carry any official Tweeters penalties other than this embarrassing public admission...?

So, off I trundled toward the bridge, figuring with the camera at least it's not a total bust. Before even getting to the bridge, I heard a VIRGINIA RAIL in the small marshy area to the R of the road, and was amazed as I turned to see it in plain sight at reeds' edge, no more than 15 feet away. Out in the open; the Virginia Rail equivalent of forgetting one's binocs...! Of course, as I tried to imperceptibly unshoulder my tripod, the bird disappeared into the reeds and taunted me with more loud and obviously very close calls. At this point I wasted fifteen minutes amusing the rail trying to capture an image as it repeatedly ventured out into several small semi-open spots. [Q: How long does it take a Virginia Rail to disappear into reeds? A: 1/500th of a second less than it takes a photographer to frame the image and trigger the shutter.]

So, I decided to do the southern 1/2 island loop and was able to locate a satisfying number of species, despite my visual handicap. Given all the recent discussion on the list, the most notable sighting perhaps was a COMMON NIGHTHAWK which was seen shortly after getting on the island. It was well past dawn, but the overcast must have kept him active. Otherwise, nothing unusual, though I did get a flycatcher trifecta of WILLOW, PACIFIC SLOPE AND OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER (the last one heard only). I walked the loop counterclockwise and then found that the bridge on the east side of the island that completes the trail loops is...gone. This is probably not news to you regulars, but it's been years since I've been there and I expected to do a complete circle. So, I had to retrace my steps, adding some unplanned distance to the walk.

'Twas a bit of a discombobulated morning, but a good one despite being binocularless in Everett and taking a thorough photographic drubbing at the hands of the Virginia Rail.


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