Spent an enjoyable 2 plus days in north central washington. Many highlights, in general a lack of raptors seen. The only notable misses were: Snowy Owl, Rosy-finch, Northern Goshawk and large groups of Redpolls (though did see 5).

I had an immature Snow Goose on I-82 a little north of Selah, Yakima Co. early in the afternoon of 1-25, associating with about 150 Canada Goose.
At Vantage, I had a large flock of 9 Long-tailed Duck from the boat launch north of I-90. A huge scaup flock was on the south side of I-90 (~400 birds), this could hold a Tufted Duck, but was not possible to scope this flock due to its position.

On the 26th, I head up to the Okanogan Highlands. On Mary Anne Creek rd:
5 Common Redoll, near Polland China Rd.
20 Chukar
Two flocks of White-winged Crossbill, one of 9 birds and one of 35 birds.
Mary Anne Creek Rd., Nealy Rd and most areas containing confiers had large amounts of Red Crossbill, Red-breasted Nuthatch and Mountain Chickadee. Most places I stopped to pish I had all 3 species, for the day probably:
150+ Red Crossbill
200+ Mountain Chickadee
100+ Red-breasted Nuthatch. I was impressed with these amounts, however the rest of bird life was quite slow.

Northern Shrikes on:
1-Nealy rd.
1-Hungry Hollow Rd.

1 Northern Pygymy Owl perched next to road on Pontaic Ridge Rd.

Raptors seen were:
3 rough-legged Hawk (2 Chesaw Rd, 1 Molson Rd)
1 adult Bald Eagle-Nealy rd.

Beaver Lake:
1 American Dipper
2 Virginia Rail-was funny watching the rail walk and probe in the snow, looked more like snipe than rails!
Also a beaver along beaver creek, feeding in the creek.

On the 27th:
I headed up to Scotch Creek Wildlife Area first. Arrived about 8:15 to the overlook and no grouse present. Birds flew in at 8:30. They seem to be coming about an hour after sunrise. When I left about 8:45, there were 21 birds.
There was on Prairie Falcon on Happy Hill Rd.

Cameron Lake rd:
Overall very quite, had a pair of White-headed Woodpecker calling near intersection with Cameron Lake Lp. Rd.
Also near here had a calling Rock Wren, seems very early for a bird to be back here. I often have them around the Columbia River in the winter, but this is not nearly as mild as the Columbia River near Vantage.

Small flock (8-10 Snow Bunting) on Cameron Lake Rd about 2 miles south of Greenaway Rd.
Amazingly no raptors were seen on the entire road.

1 Pairie Falcon on Hwy. 97 just south of fort Okanogan turnoff.

Next I stopped at Lake woods golf course, near Bridgeport St. Park.
The Harris' sparrow was still present.
also present was 125 Bohemian Waxwing
1 northern shrike

Next I hit Bridgeport St. Park. Here I had:
3 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 Northern Saw-whet Owl
1 Barn Owl
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
250 Bohemian Waxwing flying around the park, it is not known if the bird at the golf course nearby where part of this flock or if there really was almost 400 birds.
1 Bathroom Wren (I mean Rock Wren calling from the bathroom), apparently this bird was not only early but was clearly confused on habitat....!

1 Northern Shrike, Hwy. 17 just east of Brigeport.

Took a quick trip up P NE near Leahy Junction following up on Hal Opperman's post. I had 4 Sage Grouse, 1.5 miles up P NE at an old farm.

Many horned lark flocks along Hwy. 172 heading towards Mansfield.
Of interest were 1 Lapland Longspur and 1 Snow Buning in with a flock of 150 larks at intersection of O NE.
Also 1 Snow Bunting at intersection of J NE.

In Mansfield:
6 Gray Partridge
12 Eurasian Collared-Dove

I tried for the snowy owl near the intersection of 6 NE and F NE, no luck but near sunset I did have a Gryfalcon fly north over this field, crossing 6 NE and continuing north.

All in all a great weekend. Ran into Khanh Tran at the snowy owl spot, I'm sure he'll have plenty of goodies to report.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA