Hi Nancy and fellow Tweeters,

There is a trick to seeing the burrowing owls I
learned last year. They aren't exactly at the corner.
They are north of the corner about a half a block or
so on the east side of that road. I am horrible with
street names, I think that is Dodson though. There is
a slight hill and some sage scrub brush there. There
also are stakes the WDFW uses to mark the burrows.

Hope this helps next time you are there. I can't tell
you how many times I looked for them in the vicinity
and wasn't even looking in the right place.

Kathy
Roosting in S King County

--- Nancy <nelrjb at comcast.net> wrote:

> Hello Tweeters,
>
> Anxious to start some spring birding we drove over
> to Moses Lake on Friday 3/24. It was a beautiful
> sunny day there and raining in Seattle. It was
> quite windy however. Saturday it rained but Sunday
> was sunny and windy again.
>
> We headed out for our favorite spot to see if the
> Western Grebe were there to do their mating dance.
> We had seen them there last May and it was quite an
> incredible sight. The spot is written in "Birding
> Washington" by Rob and Natalie McNair-Huff on page
> 326 in the Potholes and Desert Wildlife area
> section. Take exit 169 off of I90 heading south on
> the frontage road and approximately 2 miles is the
> entrance to the Potholes where we saw the grebes.
> We plan to go back in May to see if they are there
> as it was too early to see them yet. If you head
> north you will come to Dodson road and turn left to
> find Birders Corner and Frenchman hills, a wonderful
> spot as well. The book was published in 2005 and
> states that there are Burrowing Owls at Birders
> Corner, but we have been there twice and have never
> seen them. I am thinking it is either too early in
> the season or the location is no longer valid. Do
> any of you have any information about this site?
>
> One thing we did see was plenty of AMERICAN KESTRELS
> along Dodson Road and elsewhere along the roads.
> They can be found sitting on wires overlooking farm
> fields in quantity. We counted over 20 of them over
> a 3-day period.
>
> We stopped at the Ginko Petrified Forest in Vantage
> on our way and saw a HORNED LARK and plenty of
> singing MEADOW LARKS. In fact the MEADOW LARKS were
> singing everywhere in the sage country. We had
> hoped to find some Vesper Sparrows, Sage Sparrows or
> Sage Thrashers but it must be too early for them as
> well. The only birds in the sage were the MEADOW
> LARKS, MAGPIES AND RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS that we
> could find. There were plenty of all three species.
>
> Here is the list of birds we saw:
>
> Vantage:
>
> Horned Lark, Magpie, Meadow Larks and a heard of
> white tailed deer.
>
> Moses Lake:
>
> Common Mergansers, House Sparrows, Rock Doves,
> Red-winged Blackbirds, American Crow, Buffelhead,
> Great-Blue Heron, Double-crested Cormorant, Magpie,
> 2 Beavers, Herring Gulls, Crows.
>
> The Potholes:
>
> Bald Eagle, Magpie, Double-crested Cormorant,
> American Coots, Canvasback Ducks, American Wigeons,
> Great Egret, Northern Harrier, American Kestrel,
> Greater Scaup, Meadow Lark, Mourning Dove.
>
> Birders Corner:
>
> Marsh Wren, Red-winged Blackbird, Trumpeter Swans,
> Killdeer, American Robins, Pintail Duck, Red-tailed
> Hawk, Northern Harrier, House Finch, Canvasback
> Ducks, Magpies, American Wigeon, Shoveler Ducks,
> Greater Scaup, Dark-eyed Junco.
>
> We saw what we thought was a GREATER YELLOWLEGS and
> it fit the description to a tee but the legs were
> reddish orange not yellow. Could this bird have
> been anything else?
>
> Patterned brown back and unpatterned wing edges,
> white unpatterned chest, black eye with a white eye
> ring, long pointed black bill slightly upturned and
> long red-orange legs.
>
> Saturday morning there were huge flocks of
> DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS on Moses Lake. There must
> have been several hundred of them.
>
> We drove into the Columbia Wildlife Refuge from
> highway 26 onto Seeps Lake Road and through the
> refuge to Othello.
>
> Warden Lake:
>
> Northern Flicker, Meadow Lark, Marsh Wrens, rafts of
> American Coots, American Robins, Red-winged
> Blackbirds, Magpies, Northern Harrier, Canyon Wrens,
> American Kestrels, Brewers Blackbirds, California
> Quail, White-crowned Sparrows, and we heard and then
> saw a small flock of SANDHILL CRANES.
>
> Quail Lake:
>
> Red-headed Ducks, American Coots, Meadow Larks,
> Killdeer, Red-winged Blackbirds.
>
> Swan Lake:
>
> Canada geese, Mallards, Red-winged Blackbirds, Marsh
> Wrens, Meadow Lark, Common Raven.
>
> Sage Lake:
>
> Greater Scaup, Red-tailed Hawk, Meadow Lark, Canada
> Geese
>
> Othello:
>
> Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Brewers Blackbirds, Cow
> Birds, American Kestrels.
>
> Follow HW 26 West from Othello between B & C street
> to see thousands of SANDHILL CRANES. This was the
> weekend for the Sandhill Crane Festival. They were
> definitely worth the entire trip just to hear them.
> But seeing them was fabulous as well. We also saw
> as many Canada Geese in a pond before C street.
> There must have been several thousand of each
> species of bird.
>
> Nancy Lander and Bob Bennett
>
> nelrjb at comcast.net
>
>
>
> > _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com