This is a belated report from last weekend:

Nick Page and I spent this past weekend up at Hart?s Pass and had a great time leisurely birding this scenic area. Our main focus was birding on the Whatcom County side of the Pass where we had great success in finding many high elevation species.

Our highlights of the weekend had to be:
Northern Pygmy-Owl: flew up and perched right next to the truck (25 feet away) on FR-700, mid-afternoon on Saturday. Great looks!
American Three-toed Woodpecker: working in the burnt trees just west of the county line, by the ranger station.
Pine Grosbeak: a stunning male perched on a tree right in front of us. Nine other individuals were seen on three separate occasions.
Prairie Falcon: juvenile seen on two different occasions.
Golden Eagle: juvenile seen on Saturday flying north along Slate Peak ridge.

Birds like Gray Jay, Clark?s Nutcracker, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend?s Solitaire, American Pipit and Chipping Sparrow were easy to find and encountered regularly in Whatcom County. Other ?hard to find elsewhere in the county? birds we encountered in smaller numbers included Horned Lark and Cassin?s Finch.

While Saturday was partly cloudy and a bit on the windy side, Sunday was clear and calm, with just a slight breeze coming from the north. This set up for a decent movement of raptors, although it was mostly Sharp-shinned Hawks with a few Cooper?s. By ?decent movement? I mean there was probably 1-2 raptors every 10 minutes while we watched.

I guess I will end this report with a mystery bird sighting. Just before we saw our first Pine Grosbeak, I saw a waxwing perched on the top of a small tree maybe 30 yards away. Not knowing which species to expect at this elevation at this time of year I looked at it through the scope with an open mind. Unfortunately, it only perched for about 30 seconds and its undertail coverts were obscured the whole time. I didn?t know what other field marks to even look for, but I did note a grayish belly, and when it flew I said to Nick that its flight call sounded low for a Cedar. I don?t know if it was a Bohemian or not, but if anyone heads up that way it would be a good idea to give any waxwing a good study.

By the way, here are two digiscoped photos from the weekend:
Pine Grosbeak: www.houstonflores.com/images/pigr.jpg
Townsend's Solitaire: www.houstonflores.com/images/toso.jpg

Good Migrations,

Houston Flores
Bellingham, WA
houstonflores AT hotmail.com

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