My wife and I decided to head to Umtanum Canyon today, with some side trips on the way to and from Snoqualmie. The Yakima Canyon was closed off for a bicycle event south of Thrall Road - unless you could convince the pleasant policeman that you had legitimate recreation to do in the canyon and weren't just passing through. So on we went with three reminders to go no more than 25mph - we had a mandated reason to spend lots of time birding the canyon on the way to the trailhead! Highlights on the drive over including seeing Lake Keechelus pretty much FULL of water - amazing after the last few years - and an OSPREY flying across I-90 carrying a branch for nest building.

In the Yakima Canyon, the CLIFF SWALLOW colony on the left heading south just shortly past the last houses at the canyon's north entrance was buzzing with activity. The river was running quite high and off color for this time of year due to the heavy snowpack. We saw an AMERICAN KESTREL sitting on a power line just before entering the canyon and an EASTERN KINGBIRD right by the road.

The Umtanum Creek/Canyon was worth the trip, even though it began to rain steadily (and quite heavily for this area at this time of year) around midday and we turned around earlier than planned. A few of the nice finds in the canyon included a YELLOW BREASTED CHAT singing his head off only a couple of yards past the railroad tracks, three LAZULI BUNTINGS in fine color, a HOUSE WREN, two BELTED KINGFISHERS periodically engaged in noisy aerial chases and several WILSON'S WARBLERS.

On the way back, we took the Thorp Highway exit and went to Cle Elum via the upper Yakima Canyon - seeing a number of CALIFORNIA QUAIL and a WESTERN MEADOWLARK trying his best to attract attention on a fence post.

Back home, I took a quick walk through one of the woods paths near our house and quickly saw fourteen species, half of which were new ones for the day, including a large flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK and WESTERN WOOD PEWEE.

42 species in all for the day, with five added to my (fairly new) life list. A great day, despite the rain...and THE TICKS. If you venture into Umtanum Canyon, take appropriate precautions - we removed at least eight ticks from our clothes when we got back to the trailhead; fortunately none had gotten down to business yet.

John Tubbs
www.tubbsphoto.com