I spent about 4 hours yesterday birding around Havillah and Chesaw in Okanogan County.

The only thing reportable was a flock of about 200 birds that I first saw about 2 miles SW of Havillah. I have not been able to tell if there were any species mixed in, but primarily from the photos (most blurry and far away), they were all Purple Finches.

When I first saw them, they were mostly sitting on power lines and then flew down into a field into some stubble that made clear views almost impossible.

>From there, I did Mary Ann Creek Rd., Bolster Rd. and Nealey Rd. which were uniformly very quiet.

On the way back, I found what was probably the same flock of Purple Finches on the Havillah side of the Nealey Rd. junction.

There is supposed to be a major winter storm this weekend in NE Washington, so maybe we'll finally get the boreal birds we've been waiting for.

Ron McCluskey
Cheney, WA
rmcclsky at mindspring dot com
http://birdsoftheworldonline.com