Hi Tweeters,

I stopped by Buchanan Lake, which is on the east side of I-82 in
Yakima, this morning after taking bird seed to our
sparrow patch at the Yakima Area Arboretum. It was a grebe
spectacle, with four species
present. Here are the numbers of birds seen:

Trumpeter Swan 1
Canada Goose 15 fly-overs
Wood Duck 4 fly-overs
Mallard 7
Northern Shoveler 8
Greater Scaup 2
Lesser Scaup 6
Ring-necked Duck 1
Hooded Merganser 1
Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Horned Grebe 12
Red-necked Grebe 6
Western Grebe 1
American Coot 6
Great Blue Heron 1 on the north end of the lake

This is probably the most species of grebe at one spot in Yakima
County ever, except for on the Columbia River. Any grebe except
Pied-billed in our area is noteworthy. This is another big notch on
the scoreboard
for Buchanan Lake, which is proving to be one of the best
winter-birding spots in the Yakima area.

Along the Yakima River were:
Great Blue Heron 1
Common Merganser 8
Bald Eagle 2 one adult and one immature

At the sparrow patch:
Mourning Dove 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Spotted Towhee 2
Song Sparrow 12
Golden-crowned Sparrow 15
White-crowned Sparrow 20
Dark-eyed Junco 30 (mostly Oregon with two Slate-colored)
Red-winged Blackbird 25

This area is described on page 315 of the Washington birder's guide.

This could prove to be a very interesting winter in the Yakima area,
started off with the Ancient Murrelet on Monday!

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA


* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
* Denny's bird photos can be seen online at: *
http://granstrand.net/gallery/