On this beautiful November day I spent a few hours looking for mountain birds on the SW side of Mt Adams. I took 141 west out of Trout Lake, then FR24 north to FR8851 and closed the loop back to Trout Lake on FR88. The gravel stretch along FR24 between FR60 and FR30 is the most interesting, the rest of the loop is paved (and it is sometimes hard to pull over). While there were no surprises really, I had 3 NORTHERN PYGMY-OWLS (one flew in about 10ft from me!), about 100 RED CROSSBILLS (heard & seen at almost every stop on the gravel portion of 24), Evening Grosbeak, Cassin's Finch, Varied Thrush (singing!) and 100s of Red-breasted Nuthatches, Pine Siskins, Juncos and Chickadees. And NO White-winged Crossbill or grouse. Lots of hunters out and about.

The remainder of the day I poked around the Eastern Columbia Gorge. A possible Cassiar Dark-eyed Junco was at the Bingen Ponds (otherwise very quite there). 10-12 very active Lewis's Woodpeckers were flycatching from the tops of the oaks along Old Hwy 8 and Balch Rd (near Lyle). A single ACORN WOODPECKER flew by the granary tree due south from the intersection Old 8 & Balch Rd.

Stefan Schlick
Hillsboro, OR

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