Yesterday I took a German visitor and his son around the Othello area to look for cranes, with some success. We started the morning looking for Burrowing Owls, with success at the first stop looking north from Sutton Road (3 miles north of Main Street in Othello) between Highway 17 and Reynolds Road (= 14th Ave). There were 7 owls at 4 territories along the large drainage canal, but a scope is helpful to reach the most distant bird. American Pipits were getting up along most of the alfalfa fields that we passed. Sparrows, mostly White-crowns and some Savannahs, were abundantin weedy edges through Columbia NWR. Heading west onto the Royal Slope, we found about 120 Sandhill Cranes around the intersection of Barton Road and Road 12 SE = McManamon Road, using recently harvested corn fields. More cranes were found along Road E SE about 2 1/2 miles south, using alfalfa. From around 11 until two there were several migrating flocks flying over, probably 800 total, cruising in V flocks at more than a half mile up, circling to gain altitude, then stretching out to head south over Saddle Mountain. They were using a nice tail wind and probably wound up somewhere in Oregon later in the day.

Randy Hill
Othello