Hi Tweets,



Yesterday (Wednesday, May 2) at 6:00 a.m. six hardy birders joined Barbara and me for a Seattle Audubon birdathon field trip to Kittitas County. We had intermittent chilly temperatures and rain squalls that intensified before noon and drove us from Schnebly Coulee to shelter on the east side of the Gingko State Park Visitor Center where we ate sandwiches and watched White-throated Swifts kite by as the bad weather passed and gave way to sunny skies and temps in the lower 60s, with stiff cold wind developing near Ellensburg in late afternoon. Our most surprising bird was a single Black-necked Stilt, a rare bird in Kittitas County, seen in flight low over an irrigation pond just north of I-90 and two miles west of Exit 115.



Our major stops were the North Pacific Ponds in Cle Elum, the Elk Heights burn, Vantage, and Huntzinger Road, complemented by short stops at the Rye Grass Summit Rest Area on I-90, the pond in Ellensburg just north of I-90 at Exit 109, Smithson Road northwest of Ellensburg, and Swauk Prairie Road east of Cle Elum before returning to the Issaquah Park and Ride at 7:15 p.m.



Though the weather kept birds down that we had expected, returning migrants swelled our species list to 96, with Western Tanager, Orange-crowned, Nashville, and MacGillivray's Warblers at Cle Elum, flocks of Townsend's Solitaires, Cassin's Finches, and Chipping Sparrows at Elk Heights, and Bank Swallows and Forster's Terns on Huntzinger Road.



Species seen:

Common Loon - Vantage (V)

Horned Grebe - V

Eared Grebe - 2 at Ellensburg Pond (EP)

White Pelican - 1 over Columbia, 4 on island below dam at Huntzinger Rd (HR)

Great Blue Heron

Canada Goose

American Wigeon

Mallard

Cinnamon Teal - 2 at Cle Elum (CE)

Northern Shoveler

Ring-necked Duck

Lesser Scaup - 6 at EP

Common Goldeneye

Barrow's Goldeneye - 2 at CE

Bufflehead

Common Merganser - 2 in Yakima River at CE

Ruddy Duck - 4 at EP

Turkey Vulture - 12 kettling over I-90 near Easton

Osprey -- at 2 at CE, 1 near Ellensburg

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Peregrine Falcon - V

California Quail

Chukar - Schnebly Coulee (SC)

Black-necked Stilt - [see above]

Killdeer

Wilson's Snipe - Smithson Rd and Park Creek Rd

Long-billed Curlew - 3 at Smithson Rd

Ring-billed Gull - 8 at HR

California Gull - 1 at HR

Caspian Tern - 24 at HR

Forster's Tern - 8 (2 mating) at HR

Rock Pigeon

Band-tailed Pigeon - 2 soaked birds in treetop at Snoqualmie Pass

Mourning Dove

Great Horned Owl - adult, 2 owlets NW of Ellensburg

White-throated Swift

Rufous Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Hairy Woodpecker - 2 at Elk Heights (EH)

Black-backed Woodpecker - female at EH

Northern Flicker

Say's Phoebe

Western Kingbird

Tree Swallow

Violet-green Swallow

Rough-winged Swallow

Bank Swallow - 20 at HR

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Rock Wren - 8 at V

Sage Thrasher - 2 displaying at Rye Grass Summit Rest Area

Western Bluebird - EH, Swauk Prairie Rd

Mountain Bluebird - EH, SC

Townsend's Solitaire - 10 at EH

Hermit Thrush - 2 at CE

Robin

Varied Thrush - 1 heard at Snoqualmie Pass

Black-capped Chickadee

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Steller's Jay

Magpie

Crow

Raven

Starling

House Sparrow

Cassin's Finch - lots at EH

Purple Finch - EH

House Finch

Red Crossbill - CE

Pine Siskin - CE

American Goldfinch - CE, EH, V

Evening Grosbeak - CE

Orange-crowned Warbler - CE, V

Nashville Warbler - CE, V

Yellow-rumped Warbler

MacGillivray's Warbler - CE

Common Yellowthroat - CE

Western Tanager - CE

Spotted Towhee

Chipping Sparrow - 20 at EH

Brewer's Sparrow - 2 at RG Summit

Vesper Sparrow - Swauk Prairie Rd

Savannah Sparrow - Swauk Prairie Rd

Song Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Brewer's Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird - 2 whistling at CE



Good Birding!



Paul Webster

Seattle

paul.websterATcomcast.net