Sorry for the lack of a sign-off

Randy Hill
Othello
----- Original Message -----
From: Hill
To: TWEETERS
Cc: inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 5:03 PM
Subject: [inland-NW-birders]shrikes and things near Othello


This morning I got away from the office for a few hours to check on the status of a couple of projects on Columbia NWR. On the Grant County end of Morgan Lake Road (in and near Marsh Unit 2) I saw three different Loggerhead Shrikes and one Northern Shrike. Also about a dozen American Tree Sparrows using the cattail and shrub interface. I finally had the scope along to check out the 50+ swans that moved into the County Line Ponds along highway 26 last week. Unfortunately the wind was howling and most of the heads were tucked, but I did see one Trumpeter Swan and there was a juvenile Snow Goose on the far shore. Most of the other geese looked like lesser Canadas. Also a male Canvasback. Royal Lake now has a wheelchair-accessible ramp to an overlook. We will be seeding the edges and cleaning things up over the next couple of weeks, but it can be a good spot now to see numbers of geese (5K last week) and ducks (17K Mallards today) during the day.