Hi Tweeters,

My Sunday trip was very small and I went with Mark Manke who came to the conference all the way from Maine. First we went to Bennington Lake and Rook Park. We picked up his friend Kelly from Seattle at the Walla Walla airport before going to the Whitman Mission. I was looking forward to Bennington Lake because of all of the reports the Denny's send to Tweeters about this place. As soon as we got there we saw Caspian Terns, Spotted Sandpipers, a Great Blue Heron, a Cinnamon Teal drake, and Killdeer. Not a bad start. Mark got some great looks at Bullock's Oriole in the scope. As we worked around the lake we saw and heard among many species including House Wren, Tree Swallow at the boxes, many Yellow Breasted Chat, displaying Black-chinned Hummingbirds, and California Gull which displaced the Ring-billed Gulls seen there the day before. Two Osprey were there. One fished unsuccessfully and then flew by to check in with its presumed mate between
forays. An Army Corps of Engineers employee later told us the nest tree for the Osprey was blown down and they might put up a platform in the near future. 9 Ruddy Ducks were on the lake, 3 drakes and 6 hens, a nice sight but the males had muddied their bills and not as pretty as we could hope for. We had three separate sightings of a Black-crowned Night Heron, hard to say if it was the same bird each time or not. At the end of the walk we saw a pair of Northern Rough-winged Swallows showing a lot of interest in nesting in the dirt bank by the parking lot. We did not know about the Least Flycatcher at the weir but somehow we did end up talking about them, they are common in Maine. We did not add a lot at Rooks Park but saw a Belted Kingfisher and one or two bats were out flying in the daytime. I enjoyed watching one land on a tree and crawl around, I have never been that knowingly close to a bat before.

After we picked up Kelly we went to the Mission. Many White Pelicans were flying as we drove in and we saw a Swainson's Hawk fly with two courting Red-tailed Hawks and a Common Nighthawk flew by. It was midday and rather quiet at the Mission so we also went to Tom Lambs Hummingbird Haven. What a great place. We ran into another group there who regaled us with tales of mating Green-tailed Towhee's. Both Mark and Kelly attended high school in Walla Walla and have gone their separate ways so it was a quite a reunion for both of them.

Later that evening I heard the group that went to the McNary Wildlife Refuge had the special treat of seeing Flammulated Owl on the nest. I hope there was a photographer in that group. I was finally able to catch up with my roommate Mary Hrudkai, we went out for a nice dinner at The Marc at Marcus Whitman Hotel.

Monday my trip was canceled and I was fortunate to get on MerryLynn Denny's trip since there was room. It was mostly the same route I went with Jim on Monday but we visited other areas. We refound the Indigo Bunting and watched a female Lazuli Bunting work on a nest. A Northern Goshawk likely blew through that area and later some of us got good but very brief looks at it perched. It was an immature bird. We also saw the Least Flycatcher before going up the North Fork Coppei. Sandy Stoner was also on this trip and at the Least Flycatcher place she found a nest that could have been the Least's, only part of the group saw the nest and the possible significance of the nest was on my mind after the trip. So I went back after the trip was over to try and relocate it but the wind was too fierce and I gave up after about 45 minutes of searching.

We went to the Lewis Peak location where Brad Waggoner found Green-tailed Towhee. MerryLynn had not seen them at this location before, and said this was much more accessible than the higher up location. It certainly was way too easy to hop out of the car walk about 100 feet, play for the towhee and have it perch up out in the open about 12 to 15 feet away and sing its little heart out. Wonderful.

This conference had many regular WOS trip leaders who could not attend, they were missed. Also Patrick Sullivan and his mother Ruth were missed. After returning home I was touched by Carol Riddells remembrance of Patrick. I cannot thank enough everyone who was able to lead, both the eastsiders and westsiders, including myself, with little to no experience with the area. Also deserving special recognition is Cindy McCormack who dealt with all of the registration, food and room reservations-a huge task. She also "pinch" led a trip on Sunday when she really needed to head home. Ron Friesz deserves special recogntion. He coordinated all the boxed food, picked it up (early) in his car from the Whitman College kitchen and put a lot of extra effort into making sure everyone got what they ordered.

I sure hope to get back to this beautiful part of Washington.

Kathy
Roosting in Kent, near Lake Meridian
(chukarbird at yahoo dot com)