Salutations from Bainbridge Island,

Jamie Acker and I (George Gerdts) just returned from a weekend trip east of
the Cascades. Isn't May wonderful? The weather on the east side was cool
with nighttime temperatures in the 30's in the mountains and daytime
temperatures in the mid 60s. We had no rain until we crossed Snoqualmie Pass on our
return home. The birds were cooperative and plentiful. Most all of the
"usual May suspects" were seen well. We started Friday afternoon. Jamie and I
have been doing this trip for the past 10 years or so. Rarely have we had such
a beautiful night for owling. The crescent moon was setting in the west
with Venus trailing just behind a bit, a gorgeous sight. We worked the FS Roads
out of Liberty (9712 and 9705) from 10:30 pm until after midnight.
FLAMMULATED OWLS were everywhere. We estimated that we had 12 calling. One
cooperative bird was coaxed into a Doug Fir close to a switchback. We managed to
get our lights on the owl, which sat motionless no more than 25 feet away at
eye-level for several minutes, while we carefully studied every detail of its
diminutive-sized plumage. Moths were out in force, and this owl had a
stuffed crop!! One sad note was that a Spotted Owl territory from last year was
now taken over by a pair of caterwauling BARRED OWLS. We also had a N.
SAW-WHET OWL tooting. While on owls, has anyone recorded Burrowing Owl in the
traditional sites near Dodson Road and Frenchman Hills Road? Jamie and I were
unable to locate either pair from last year, and neither site looked at all
occupied.
Other highlights included two calling CHUKARS in Frenchman Coulee. They
kept us occupied long enough for a CANYON WREN to chime in with its sweet
song, and a PRAIRIE FALCON to land on the basalt cliffs over our heads. Moses
Lake had 2 pairs of CLARK'S GREBES, how they manage to nest there what with
all the motorboat traffic amazes me. We had two BLACK TERNS at the "Potholes
Heronry" off I-90 at exit 174. While driving out from the heronry, a GRAY
PARTRIDGE inched its way across the road while we watched with our scopes.
FORSTER'S TERNS were present at Halfmoon Lake NW of the Para Ponds on McManamon
Rd. We had no luck in relocating the Black-tailed Gull that was seen near
Corfu. There were some RING-BILLELD GULLS and a few CA. GULLS in the area,
but no sign of the Black-tailed by us. A few words of caution about following
the directions in Opperman's guide to a ""superb marshy lake" about a 1/2
mile west of Road I SW off of Frenchman Hills Road. The 1/2 mile hike is
through interesting terrain, but be prepared for hordes of mosquitoes. We found
the two lakes along Road I SW to be more productive with much better
visibility: great habitat in that area. We camped overnight at Wenas. Wenas was
Wenas with great studies of singing Empids: HAMMONDS, DUSKY, GRAY, AND PACIFIC
SLOPE. RUFFED GROUSE, WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER, PYGMY AND WHITE-BREASTED
NUTHATCHES, CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD, and the usual assortment of warblers made for a
great morning of birding. Hardy Canyon was our last stop. A pair of
BUSHTITS caught Jamie's sharp eyes, an unusual place for these mostly- westside
denizens. Two spontaneously calling Chats dueted us, and a cooperative LAZULI
BUNTING serenaded us as we left for home. We tallied 143 species for the
weekend. Isn't May wonderful??

Cheers and good birding,

George Gerdts
Bainbridge Island, WA
_geopandion at aol.com_ (mailto:geopandion at aol.com)



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