Hi all -
I finally broke away from the confines of King County and ventured
over to Eastern WA for the day today.
[for the record, the 'confines' of King Co are due to equal parts gas
prices and a fun but unhealthy county big year competition]

As reported by many, the BLACK-THROATED SPARROWS are still present
along Huntzinger Rd. A friendly visiting birder couple from
Massachusetts guided me to the first of them at 0.8 mi n. of the
entrance to Wanapum SP. Got great looks and listens, then realised
that my day's goal was achieved and it wasn't yet 6:00 am. What to do
next?

Armed with no preprinted Tweeters reports, I headed over to Grant
County to try to track down one of my WA nemesis birds, Grasshopper
Sparrow. Vague memories of people's recs led me to head up east of
Soap Lake, along 20 NE [which runs parallel to SR 28, just to the
south a bit]. Just west of the canal, I finally succeeded in hearing
, then seeing a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW in WA. Yay.

Next, I drove back to Vantage, and headed out along the Old Vantage
Hwy. At the pulloffs at about 23.6 mi, I saw a pair of ASH-THROATED
FLYCATCHERS, sitting on the fence, close to, but never entering, one
of the bluebird nest boxes. After seeing a single ATFL at this spot
for a few years, it was enjoyable to see 2 present now. In the
background, just up the hill from the ATFL, a pair of CHUKAR were
chatting loudly - I looked in vain for any little Chuklets.

I failed to relocate the Eurasian Collared Doves reported a while
back in Thorpe, but just down the road at the Elk Heights Burn, I did
see BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER from the road.

I ended my day with a couple hours back in King Co., across Stampede
Pass. Not much flew in the couple hours I sat on a ridge, hoping for
a Golden Eagle or Goshawk.

All in all, a good day,

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA
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