Ken and Tweeters,

Too bad we did not cross paths in Asotin County this past weekend. Ollie
and I were mostly in Whitman County but birded the NW edge of Asotin after
crossing the bridge labeled Clarkston Snake River Seaplane Base (Benchmark
Map) Sunday about 1:30pm.

There was a sizable mixed flock of waterfowl in the Snake River NW of Chief
Timothy State Park. We missed the Peregrine though.

. In this flock was one female Surf Scoter. I realized Scoters in
E. WA are not real common, but until I was entering my data I didn't realize
there are less than 5 records of this species in Asotin County.

. Also 3 female Canvasbacks were in the flock; and these are listed
as rare in Asotin.

. A nice group of four Eared Grebes were grouped together and these
are listed as harder to find, usually seen annually.



Just a little ways East of WaWaWai County Park we saw a flock of 7
Bonaparte's Gulls flying along and landing in the Snake River. They were
actively moving around the River and so counted for both Whitman and
Garfield Counties. This gull is listed as rare in both counties so I'm
reporting in hopes that the WA County collators will pick this up if it has
not been seen yet this year.



On the way home we made a brief stop at Bassett Park in Washtuca. The Wild
Turkeys were out in the middle of the park slowly walking around. Also we
saw at least 3 Eurasian Collared-Doves. Two males were fighting over a
female. It was getting late and we still had a long drive home so did not
spend more time here after chatting with the nice ladies who were asking us
what we were looking at. Then the cats from neighboring yard came out.
There had to have been more than 20. It was an amazing sight to see so many
cats surging out of a single yard, many different colors and ages.

Grace

Grace & Ollie Oliver

Redmond, WA