Subject: [Tweeters] Columbia Gorge Birding Sat. 12/13
Date: Dec 13 20:39:18 2008
From: David Irons - davidirons20 at yahoo.com


Greetings All,

Today I birded along the Columbia River in Umatilla Co., OR and Walla Walla Co., WA with Steve Mlodinow.
Nearly the entire morning was spent at McNary Dam. First thing in the morning we checked below the dam where we had six species of gulls including one adult Western and two Mews. The remainder of the morning we spent passerine birding in the wildlife area below the dam. Highlights included three Harris's Sparrows, three Barn Swallows, one Sooty Fox Sparrow, one Swamp Sparrow, and 13 Golden-crowned Sparrows (a pretty good bird this far east). Just above McNary Dam we found a flock of 480 Common Goldeneyes.

>From there we drove upriver to bird the Walla Walla River delta and the surrounding area, including McNary NWR. On the way we stopped at Sand Station and refound the White-winged Scoter that was first reported there more than a week ago. At the Walla Walla River delta we had an adult Glaucous Gull, two more Mew Gulls, three Thayer's and expected numbers of Herring, Ring-billed, and California gulls. A nice flock of shorebirds included 51 Dunlin and six Least Sandpipers. We finished the day at the cove on the south/west side of the Walla Walla River mouth. There were several large rafts of American Coots (about 1500) and diving ducks that included about 1400 Canvasbacks, 400-500 Redheads, 400 Lesser Scaup and about 150 Common Goldeneyes. For the small fraction of those reading this who are still Streptopeliaphiles (thankfully not a crime), we had two flocks totaling 19 Eurasian Collared-Doves in the small community of Burbank, WA.

Tomorrow, we plan to bird the areas surrounding the John Day, The Dalles, and Bonneville dams and areas in between. Surprisingly, we enjoyed relatively tame weather even though the wind howled through Umatilla (where we are staying) last night. Unless we were right on the river the wind was light most of the day and we had no precipitation until late afternoon. The temps were well above freezing until about 3:30 when a cold front rolled in. It has been snowing lightly for the past hour or so, but no significant accumulation...yet!

Dave Irons