Yakkers,

We spent Sunday morning in what we call "Mesatchee Meadows." This is an
area of soggy sedge meadows, ponds, interspersed with shrubby willow and
alder thickets surrounded by dense "Wetside" forest. These meadows occupies
parts of the American River bottomlands, a wide glacier-carved valley
southwest of the Mesatchee Creek Trailhead on the Chinook Pass Highway about
10 miles east of the summit. Though we started in early morning, it was
still a very warm and muggy trip.

Our main goal was to see Black Swifts in the sky over the swamp. Because it
was warm the swifts were flying high up. We managed with effort to spot
three Black Swifts among the more numerous Vaux's.

We had good luck on woodpeckers. Near the trailhead we found an American
Three-toed Woodpecker working a Pacific Silver Fir. The surrounding forest
was composed of Douglas-fir, Lodgepole Pine, Western Larch, and true firs,
both Pacific Silver and Grand. South of the American River crossing (cold
and waist deep!) a few hundred yards we observed two Black-backed
Woodpeckers. The forest here was composed of two "scaly-barked species:
Engelmann Spruce and Lodgepole Pine, plus Pacific Silver Fir. In the silver
snags around the swamp were Red-naped Sapsuckers, Northern Flickers, and one
Pileated Woodpecker.

Species list:

Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Black Swift - 3
Vaux's Swift - 15
Red-naped Sapsucker - 2
American Three-toed Woodpecker - 2
Black-backed Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
Olive-sided Flycatcher - 4
Western Wood-Pewee - 3
Hammond's Flycatcher - 2
Gray Jay - 5
Steller's Jay - 1
Clark's Nutcracker - 5
Common Raven - 2
Mountain Chickadee - 2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee - 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 3
Brown Creeper - 4
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 5
Hermit Thrush - 1
American Robin - 1
Varied Thrush - 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1
Townsend's Warbler - 1
Song Sparrow - 2
Lincoln's Sparrow - 3
Dark-eyed Junco - 5
Pine Siskin - 2
Evening Grosbeak - 3

Andy and Ellen Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net