Hello Tweets,

Today we birded the Woodland Bottoms area between 9:30am-12pm along with Ken Knittle,who birded with us from several areas as drove around the Dike Access Rd. area. Birding results were much different than our last visit at these areas on the 16th with many good sightings today. The weather remained nice with just a few scattered rain showers that blew over turning to calm,sunny conditions afterwards. Our main highlight during our visit included 4 EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES observed and photographed at around 10:15am along Roberson Rd.,which is the 2nd Cowlitz Co. record to date. We first located 3 birds atop an oak tree across the street of a residential area along Roberson Rd.,where they remained for a short time. We then located an additional bird as we looked down the road atop a telephone pole. Eventually, the bird atop the telephone pole flew to an unknown area then the 3 birds flew off to the east where they landed in some trees in a hidden yard. Perhaps in several years this species will be found in every Washington county with more increased sightings!

We began our visit to the Woodland Bottoms along the southern portion of the "loop",where we began along the east portion of Whalen Rd. near a railroad crossing at the intersection of Kuhnis Rd. Here, our first bird was a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH that Ken spotted in an oak tree that soon called loudly and offered great views for us all as it became active in the center of the tree. This bird was a great Cowlitz Co. bird for us all to see,as well as relatively tough bird in that county even though small populations occur to the south in Clark Co. near the Ridgefield NWR. As we stood at this intersection 2 flocks of SNOW GEESE containing approximately 140+ birds that flew northward at a distance,as well as small numbers of Cackling Geese,Tundra Swans, and Sandhill Cranes. We located another flock of Snow Geese that flew south overhead into Clark Co. along Dike Rd. that contained 60+ birds. We continued south along Kuhnis Rd. towards Dike Rd.,where 2 Wood Ducks were observed,as the flushed out of a thickly vegetated canal along the east side of the road bordering the railroad tracks. The 2 birds continued south calling until we lost them,but figured they landed in the same canal further down the road. We continued along Dike Rd. along the Lewis River,then continued north bordering the Columbia River. We located a flock of 150+ Am.Pipits in a field bordering Dike Rd. that flushed and soon landed in several trees for awhile. This was our first time seeing Am.Pipits in trees since they are primarily a ground-dweller. A portion of the flock remained on he ground while the portion of the flock in trees eventually flew off to the south to unknown areas. Further north along Dike Rd. we located a group of 12 California Quail along the edge of a brushy area near a home,then a group of 8 Lincoln's Sparrows were tallied along the other side of the road in raspberry patches. As we looked to the northeast we located a flock of 300+ Sandhill Cranes in a large,open field that soon flushed by a passing helicopter and gained elevation. The birds towered high above the area before drifting off to the south.

We continued north along Dike Rd and turned onto Whalen Rd.,where we located 2 TREE SWALLOWS flying north of the road. We then proceeded east to Roberson Rd.,where we observed the 4 Eurasian Collared Doves before working our way back to Dike Rd. The remainder of our visit was somewhat slow,but a few additional species were noted including the following highlights:

8 Great Egrets
1 Cooper's Hawk
4 Mourning Doves
4 additional Tree Swallows
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
25+ Western Meadowlarks


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com