Hello, tweets.

A bunch of us who work on Seattle Audubon's BirdNote program took a
little trip to the east side of the Cascades yesterday (Oct 5) to
soak up more avian inspiration. It was a nice day with lots of birds,
and a few were noteworthy.

At the Teanaway River at highway 10, E of Cle Elum, we saw a flock of
at least 20 Bushtits. This is the farthest west I have seen them in
the Yakima River drainage, perhaps the farthest west record on the
east side of the Cascades. They have long been known from the Yakima,
but only in recent years from the area to the west of Ellensburg. If
anyone knows of previous records at Teanaway or even farther west,
I'd like to be informed.

At the hatchery ponds at South Cle Elum, finches were surprisingly
common. There were flocks of Pine Siskins, American Goldfinches,
Cassin's Finches, Evening Grosbeaks, and Red Crossbills. Siskins seem
to be coming back in numbers after their absence last winter.

The other notable birds were merely part of a spectacle. In the
Columbia River (Wanapum Lake) south of I-90, there were thousands of
coots and ducks. Coots were the most abundant, rafts of them all over
the river (any attempt at estimating their numbers was defeated by
looking downriver and seeing specks on the water as far as the eye
could see), but there are also many ducks. The most common were
scaups (at a distance, probably both species, Lesser definitely
seen), Ring-necked Ducks, American Wigeons, and Ruddy Ducks, but
there were small numbers of Redheads, Canvasbacks, Mallards,
Gadwalls, and Northern Pintails as well. Also a few Pied-billed
Grebes and a Bufflehead. I had seen similar numbers a couple of weeks
earlier (Sep 17), interestingly without the Ring-necked Ducks. On
that occasion there were dozens of Horned Grebes mixed in with the
ducks, but that species seemed absent from the flocks yesterday,
although we saw a few on the lake. So the cast of characters is
changing as migration proceeds.

Unfortunately, there is no close access to these birds, short of
getting in a boat and going out to them (probably not a good idea, as
they seemed very nervous, large groups suddenly leaping - or
pattering - into flight). You can drive south of Vantage, pull off
the road, walk out into the sagebrush on an overlook (especially
above the small wooded island that encloses a protected area) and
scrutinize the flocks with a scope. I guess you could also just hike
down the hill to get closer, which we didn't try. On Sep 17, the
flocks stopped short of the state park boat launch, but we didn't
check that yesterday, and it's possible you might see some of them
from there. Looks like a good place for a Tufted Duck to show up,
but, even if not, it's exciting to see that many birds together.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net

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