Yesterday, for the third year in a row, Vicki King and I led a Seattle Audubon field trip to the Umtanum Recreation Area which is south of Ellensburg in the Yakima River Canyon. The weather was great and the place was full of people hiking and just enjoying the area.

Upon arriving at the BLM parking site and getting our gear together, we had WESTERN TANAGER, BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, and LEWIS WOODPECKER right near the parking lot. We then traversed over the suspension bridge and on up the trail for a couple of miles. CHUCKAR were calling throughout the canyon and everyone enjoyed good looks at this bird. At our lunch spot there were a pair of nesting PRAIRIE FALCONS putting on a show. We also had a pair of nesting AMERICAN KESTREL in the same general area.

Almost everyone had good looks at some of our other target birds including YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, LAZULI BUNTING, TOWNSEND'S, WILSON'S, YELLOW, and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS. A few other species of note were an east-side population of BUSHTIT, four GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, HERMIT THRUSH, along with calling CANYON WREN and ROCK WREN. On the hillside we noted Bighorn Sheep and Yellow-bellied Marmot, while near the trail we encountered a coiled Rattlesnake.

Cheers and Good Birding



Michael Fleming

Ballard, WA

michaellf AT myway.com

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