Being a masochist, I was on the road before 4:00 AM Sunday for a long day of
birding on the east side of the mountains. My inspiration was Brian Bell's
recap of the ELWAS (that's East Lake Washington Audubon Society for
4-letter-code-phobes...) field trip last week. It was a beautiful day to be
out.

I arrived at the Dodson Road exit on I-90 at dawn and birded my way south to
Frenchman Hills Road. Lots of waterfowl present including MALLARD, COMMON
MERGANSER, GREEN-WINGED TEAL (AGWT not GWTE!), CINNAMON TEAL, GADWALL,
CANVASBACK, LESSER SCAUP, REDHEAD, TRUMPETER SWAN and CANADA GOOSE.
RING-NECKED PHEASANT were common and very vocal. The KILLDEER were
excitable. I also saw several RED-TAILED HAWKS, AMERICAN KESTREAL and
NORTHERN HARRIER.

On the drive east on Frenchman Hills Road I saw a LONG-BILLED CURLEW fly
over. I stopped briefly at Potholes State Park which was quiet. I did see a
pair of HOODED MERGANSER and a few other species including HAIRY WOODPECKER,
HOUSE FINCH, BEWICKS WREN and COMMON RAVEN. The south end of the reservoir
was pretty quiet - mostly just COOTS plus one CINNAMON TEAL.

I headed south through the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge where I stopped
at various points along Morgan Lake Road. I found more waterfowl including
AMERICAN WIGEON, BUFFLEHEAD, NORTHERN PINTAIL, RING-NECKED DUCK, COMMON
GOLDENEYE and one EURASIAN WIGEON (Soda Lake). Swallows were everywhere as I
walked the FROG LAKE TRAIL including VIOLET-GREEN, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED and
TREE. I also flushed a covey of CALIFORNIA QUAIL. The highlight of this
section was a LONG-EARED OWL in the large grove of Willows near Soda lake. I
stopped briefly at the Para Ponds north of Othello where I saw a handful of
TRI-COLORED BLACKBIRDS and NORTHERN SHOVELER among other waterfowl.

I looked for Burrowing Owls along Steele, Cunningham and Gillis Roads east
of Othello to no avail. I saw what seemed to be fresh burrows but no birds.
I see that Matt Bartels and crew found them on Saturday... C'est la vie.

I stopped at the ponds west of Gillis Road on HW26 which were filled with
CANADA GEESE as well as some CACKLING GEESE and a couple of AMERICAN AVOCET.
While there I saw 15-20 SANDHILL CRANE flying over. I also saw dozens
(dozens of dozens?) of flocks of Canada Geese flying over at high altitude.
I'm not good at estimating numbers but in the 20 minutes there I must have
seen 3000-4000. It was quite a sight.

Next I headed to Vantage where I birded the Old Vantage Highway toward
Kittitas in hopes of finding Sage Sparrow (SAGS) and Sage Thrasher (SATH).
Unfortunately by the time I arrived the winds were howling. I heard a few
snippets that may have been SAGS but didn't them or SATH. Next time I will
try early in the day. I did see SAYS PHOEBE and LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. The GREAT
HORNED OWL that Brian Bell's ELWAS group discovered was on the stick nest in
the yard of the house just west of Parke Creek Road on the Vantage Highway.

Last stop was the Elk Heights burn at exit 93 where, after a long search, I
found both the male and female BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER (BBWO). A group of
birders from Seattle staked out the female BBWO as she spent about 20
minutes shredded a tree about 15 feet from where we watched. I also saw
HAIRY WOODPECKER, a pair of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, CASSINS FINCHES, DARK-EYED
JUNCO and a RUFFED GROUSE before heading home a tired but happy man.

Overall 63 species for the day.

Mason Flint
Snoqualmie, WA