My wife and I birded up the Columbia Gorge on Sunday enjoying the
warm weather and early spring wildflowers while searching for migrant
birds. In Skamania County we found single TURKEY VULTURES at Skamania
Landing and Underwood Hill. While there were large flocks of GREATER
SCAUP all along the Columbia River we found very few COMMON GOLDENEYE
and the only BARROW'S GOLDENEYE was a single male at the Little White
Salmon Fish Hatchery.
A check of the oak woodlands around Catherine Creek and Balch Road
in Klickitat County failed to produce any LEWIS' WOODPECKERS or the
ACORN WOODPECKERS. This is most likely a result of the poor acorn crop
last fall and probably explains last year's out of place sightings of
Acorn Woodpeckers in Clark County.
At the mouth of the Klickitat River we counted seven TURKEY
VULTURES including a couple in flight being repeatedly dived on by an
immature BALD EAGLE. While scoping out the gulls on the sandbar at the
river mouth Stuart Johnston stopped for a visit and we picked out one
CASPIAN TERN in the flock.
After a pleasant visit Susan and I continued up to Dallesport where
we found a single GREATER YELLOWLEGS in the Tidyman Road Ponds and a
pair of MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS perched on the fence line there.
The wildflower display is just starting and should be spectacular
in the next few weeks after a winter with adequate rainfall.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA