Hello All
Starting Saturday afternoon, I spent 4 days birding in north-central
Washington. My main ambition was to run a Breeding Bird Survey near Moses
Meadows, which I did on Monday. What a great experience! More people should
be doing BBS as it's a great way to keep your identification skills up to
snuff and get a lot of birds in the process. This was the first year this
route has been run, and I'm looking forward to running it annually.

I started Saturday (after a stop for aplets and cotlets in Cashmere) by
birding on the Waterville Plateau. There were Grasshopper Sparrows in the
Atkins Lake area, and at Stallard Lake I had a bunch of waterbirds including
Great Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, 2 Barrow's Goldeneye, Wilson's
Phalaropes, American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, and others. I stayed the
night at Sun Lakes State Park, which did not produce any lingering migrants
this time.

On Sunday I traced the BBS route to make sure all the roads were in good
shape. First thing in the morning, near the Colville Indian Agency on Hwy
155 were multitudes of catbirds, a few Red-eyed Vireos, and several singing
Northern Waterthrushes, my only ones for the trip. After the BBS route, I
did some butterflying around Moses Meadows and picked up Peck's and
Tawny-edged Skippers, which were new ones for me. Afterwards, I swung by the
north end of Aeneas Valley Road, where about half a dozen Bobolinks obliged
with good views and lots of song. I camped at a nice, secluded spot near
Lyman Lake where I had Wilson's Snipes, Soras, Virginia Rails, etc. in a
small marsh. It reminded me exactly of the spot in Alberta where I saw
LeConte's Sparrows and Yellow Rails; I wonder how often these species might
find themselves in Washington without us noticing.

Monday was the BBS day. The weather was excellent with clear skies and
minimal wind. During the 50 three-minute point counts, I counted 847 birds
of 82 species. There were some surprises on the route: I had 2 immature male
Purple Finches about 8 miles north of Nespelem, which seems very far east
for this species in WA. The most common bird was Chipping Sparrow, detected
on 29 stops. Veeries were very common in certain spots, with 26 counted in
12 stops. Surprisingly to me, not all of them were in riparian habitat but
also open pine forest. During one of the last stops, I heard an American
Redstart singing. I came back after the survey to try to see it, but the
bird was silent. As soon as I stepped off the road, however, a Ruffed Grouse
bustled over to my feet, beating its wings and making a terrible racket. A
moment later, its brood of many chicks flew up into the bushes all around
me. The mother continued making ungodly sounds, then switched modes to
divert my attention by moving like a small mammal or other tasty entity. I
walked away entirely. About that time, it struck me that the habitat looked
good for Great Gray Owl, so I did a (I thought) pretty miserable impression.
Unbelievably, I got a response and followed the sound to a large, very dense
tree where a Great Gray Owl continued to call from, but would not show
itself. I stuck around for some time, but could not get a visual. I suspect
the bird may have been on a nest.

After that excitement, I explored the Meadows CG area in search of Spruce
Grouse. No luck on the grouse, only numerous Am. Three-toed Woodpeckers. I
camped at Conners Lake in the Sinlahekin Valley. Common Poorwills called
almost constantly during the night. The next morning (Tuesday) I first
birded the Similkameen River area from Palmer Lake (Bobolinks) to Chopaka
Road. At Champney's Slough I had my first Least Flycatcher of the trip,
calling from cottonwoods on the island across from the overlooking pulloff.
Other areas nearby produced Black-chinned Hummingbirds and large numbers of
other species common up there. I headed up Toats Coulee Road (a Lewis's
Woodpecker kept up with my car for a mile and a half!) to Long Swamp, which
is a changed place since the fires. There are still several closures
affecting access to other areas, such as Tiffany Lake. Again, more
Three-toed Woodpeckers, but I struck out on Spruce Grouse and Boreal
Chickadees.

Heading south, I stopped at Loomis for some ice cream, and while parking I
heard two Least Flycatchers calling from a couple trees in a nearby yard,
and a Eurasian Collared-Dove flew over. I spent a couple hours in the
afternoon in the Sinlahekin Valley. I was a bit surprised to have a singing
gambellii White-crowned Sparrow at one spot; I've previously only had them
in subalpine locations. Do they nest in the Okanogan or Sinlahekin Valleys?
I was also treated to a female Monarch searching out nectar along the road.
It might be a good year for Monarchs in Washington. On the way south, I
pulled over at an aspen copse near Fish Lake and found 3 more Least
Flycatchers! Sheesh!

During the trip, I had 173 species. It's my favorite time of the year in one
of my favorite regions. Can't get much better!

Cheers,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington