Spent today birding along the Columbia river from Bingen near the west edge
of Klickitat County line to the east edge of Klickitat County.
Several notable birds found. The first notable birds of the day were two
subspecies of more common birds; slate-colored FOX SPARROW and myrtle
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, both at Bingen marina park. There were many sooty fox
sparrows present but in the cattails a very slate-colored back and rusty
wings and tail fox sparrow popped up. This is a sub-species that I don't
believe there are too many winter records of, particularly in eastern
Washington (though Bingen is barely eastern WA). Giving a loud chip among
the several Audubon's race Yellow-rumped, the myrtle warbler was foraging in
the pines. This subspecies is uncommon to rare in eastern WA, though not
super unexpected in areas with lots of butterbutts like the gorge.
Many gulls on the day, the best single sighting was an adult THAYER'S GULL
(#227 for the county year list) seen fishing on Rowland lake, just east of
Bingen. There were an abundance of gulls on the river today with a large
group on the Oregon side below the Dalles Dam, comprising of Herring,
Glaucous-winged, California and Ring-billed. Smaller groups were below the
John Day dam. However the biggest surprise came along the river about 2pm
about 3 miles east of Roosevelt. There were an estimated 450 CALIFORNIA
GULLS sitting on the river, close to the shore! There was only a handful of
ring-billed and herring in the group(maybe 10-15 of each). This is one of
the largest winter concentrations of California Gulls I've ever seen in
eastern WA, especially away from known attractants like landfills, dams or
poop piles. The composition was about 70/30 adult to immature.
Finished out the day by finally finding a Black-crowned Night Heron in a
small marsh a couple miles west of the Alderdale Rd turnoff at the eastern
edge of the county. This was a big gap filled for the county year list and
#228 overall.

A great day under sunny skies.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA