On Sunday (6/03/07), we were in the midst of
pre-summer heat wave, Despite the high temps, Kim
Thorburn and I traveled to Washtucna and eventually
down to the Yakima River Delta.

Fortunately, some early morning clouds over Washtucna
kept the morning fairly pleasant. When we arrived in
Bassett Park, we met and birded with Ruth & Patrick
Sullivan.

Avian activity level was pretty decent. Surprisingly,
the first bird in the park that I put glass on was a
female AMERICAN REDSTART. The redstart was an Adams
County lifer for me. After that, we flushed a BARN OWL
and we seemed to be surrounded by WILLOW FLYCATCHERs.
We had excellent views of a couple of different
singing RED-EYED VIREOs, and saw DUSKY FLYCATCHER,
PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER, RED CROSSBILL, HERMIT
THRUSH, WILSON'S WARBLER, EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE,
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD, and WILD TURKEY. Plenty of
Yellow-bellied Marmots were on the Washtucna Paliades.

By mid-morning, Kim and I had departed from Bassett
Park, and attempted to find several Adams County birds
that I needed (Lark Sparrow, Gray Catbird, and
Yellow-breasted Chat). We dipped on the Lark Sparrow,
and then searched in vain for chat and catbird along
the Palouse River near Hooper.

However, we did see a FERRUGINOUS HAWK one mile east
of Washtucna, LONG-BILLED CURLEW in an irrigated hay
field on Hooper Road immediately south of Hwy 26, and
EASTERN KINGBIRD, WESTERN KINGBIRD, and SAY'S PHOEBE
on the north side of the Palouse River.
All of the above birds were in Adams County.

In Hooper, we walked up the slope and birded the
locust tree grove. One of the tallest locust trees in
the center of the grove was loaded with birds. Birds
were flitting in and out of the canopy, and the
visitors included BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, WESTERN
TANAGER, WILSON'S WARBLER -2, HOUSE SPARROW,
PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER, MOURNING DOVE,and WARBLING
VIREO -3.

High in the canopy, my Whitman County lifer RED-EYED
VIREO came into view. After Kim and I had craned our
necks on these birds, Kim said she thought she had a
second Red-eyed Vireo. When I glassed the bird in
question, I could see the dark eye line and lores
which gave the bird a much better defined facial
pattern than the neighboring Warbling Vireos. However,
this bird was more compact than even a Warbling, with
a stubbier bill, a darker crown than a Warbling, and
had a dull yellowish wash to the throat and undertail
coverts. This was a PHILADELPHIA VIREO, and is
probably the first county record for Whitman County.

After ten minutes of high activity, most of the
migrants had dispersed from the locust grove, and we
were left with singing Warbling Vireos and the other
summer residents. We crossed paths with the Sullivans
one more time, and informed them of the Philly Vireo.

Since we had such an excellent morning, we decided to
try for the Baltimore Oriole on Bateman Island. On the
highway stretch to Kahlotus, we saw SWAINSON'S HAWK,
NORTHERN HARRIER, RED-TAILED HAWK, and WESTERN
KINGBIRD (Franklin County). There weren't any migrants
in Kahlotus City Park.

With the temperature hanging up in the high 90's, it
was really too hot to bird, but we pushed on. From
1:30 to 3:00 PM, we checked and rechecked the mulberry
trees and even back along the causeway for the
Baltimore. It was a futile effort, but between moments
of wiping perspiration from our eyes, we did see WHITE
PELICAN, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, BULLOCK'S ORIOLE,
HOUSE FINCH, RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD, BROWN-HEADED
COWBIRD, YELLOW WARBLER, SONG SPARROW, and heard Gray
Catbird.

A couple of years ago, I saved a post on Inlanders
that stated there were Chukars in Adams County along a
canal near 2910 Kulm Road. Well, I didn't have
directions to the this address, but we tried searching
for it both the southern and northern ends of the
county. Finally, we realized that this address number
doesn't exist, and must have been in error. In the
meantime, we checked the pond at Hatton Coulee and saw
of BLACK-NECKED STILTS, AMERICAN AVOCETS, WILSON'S
PHALAROPES, GADWALL, AMERICAN WIGEON, AMERICAN COOT,
and MALLARD.

In our trek across the northern end of the county on
Kulm Road, a Badger crossed the road. A cloud of dust
was created when it entered it's burrow. Apparently,
the badger was curious about us, and it poked it's
striped head over the tall grass to look us over.
Having enough of us, the badger once again exited and
lifted up yet another cloud of dust.

In Rocky Coulee, there were BREWER'S SPARROW, VESPER
SPARROW, and nest of SWAINSON'S HAWKs in a large, lone
deciduous tree on Griffith Road (2 miles west of
Lauer). On Hwy 21 (MP35.5 and west of the WSU Drylands
Experimental Station) there was a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW
on a fenceline. The CCSP appeared to have nesting
material in it's beak and flew onto a hill top on the
east side of the road. This CRP land had some
scattered bushes that might provide enough habitat for
this species, but we could not relocate the bird. The
CCSP never sang ( we only heard distant Vesper
Sparrows from the highway), but it would certainly
make an nice Adams County nesting record.

Our final stop of the evening was the north end of
Sprague Lake (Lincoln County). From a nice high
vantage point, we observed RING-BILLED GULL, CASPIAN
TERN, BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, WESTERN GREBE,
CLARK'S GREBE, WILLOW FLYCATCHER, COMMON NIGHTHAWK,
EASTERN KINGBIRD, and ROCK WREN.

Good birding to all,

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA



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