Subject: [Tweeters] Othello Sandhill Crane Festival Wahluke Slope trip
Date: Mar 31 11:45:04 2008
From: Andy Stepniewski - steppie at nwinfo.net


Tweeters,

Here's a trip report from the crane festival:

WAHLUKE SLOPE
30 MARCH 2008

As one of the field trips of the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival, we led a
group of 12 out to the Wahluke Slope unit of Hanford Reach National
Monument. This area encompasses the area of the monument from the crest of
the Saddle Mountains south to the Columbia River. Unusually cool and
unsettled weather was on tap for the day, indeed for the entire festival. We
saw sun, wind, rain and hail, even snow (actually graupel). The temps
climbed only to about 450F, way below the norm.

Birds? We saw the expected signature species present in the shrub-steppe at
the end of March: Long-billed Curlew, Loggerhead Shrike, and Sage Sparrow.
Western Meadowlarks stood out as the lone shrub-steppe species seemingly
unaffected by the unseasonably cold weather; they were engaged in flight
displays and singing at every stop, except in burnt areas. Others that we
usually see such as Prairie Falcon, Say's Phoebe, Rock and Canyon Wrens, and
Song Sparrow, were surely around but stayed hidden. I could hardly believe
we could'nt find a Song Sparrow. By afternoon, noting we were missing this
ubiquitous bird I actually focused on getting one to pop into view. No luck!
The birds might have been concentrating on survival rather than obliging to
birders pishing.

Since a major fire burned much of the unit's shrub-steppe south of SR-24 in
2007, we started the day north of the highway on the slopes of the Saddle
Mountains. We got onto a flighty Loggerhead Shrike right at the start, then
had better views of Sage Sparrow. Since it was cold, I chose to make this a
hiking day as much as possible. We walked for many of our birds just so we
wouldn't be freezing while peering through a scope. We stopped to interpret
the shrub-steppe landscape, noting various biscuitroots in bloom
(big-seeded, nine-leafed, and Gormann's) and a few showy yellow bells. On
the usual hike down into the saddle on the crest of these mountains, usually
an area out of the wind, we found this east-facing bowl bearing the full
brunt of an east wind. Brrr.and no birds save starlings and a few hardy
Violet-green Swallows.

The White Bluffs overlook, was as beautiful as ever and here we swelled our
bird list with American White Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Long-billed
Curlew, waterfowl such as Greater Scaup, both Common and Barrow's
Goldeneyes, Bufflehead, and Common Merganser, raptors such as Bald Eagle and
Red-tailed Hawks. Our most unusual bird of the day was here, a soaring
TURKEY VULTURE, very uncommon in the central Columbia Basin.

Our last stop was at the historic (part of the main cross-state highway in
times past) White Bluffs Ferry Landing. The brisk weather seemed to be
keeping most swallows very low over the river. We noted several hundred
Violet-greens skimming just inches over the water; apparently that's where
the bugs were concentrated. We added a few more "waterbirds" to our list:
American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, American Coot, and Belted Kingfisher. We
struggled to add a Marsh Wren but still couldn't roust a Song Sparrow, not
to mention flicker or House Finch.

Species list:

Canada Goose
Mallard
American Wigeon
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Common Goldeneye
Barrow's Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Ring-necked Pheasant
California Quail
Horned Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
TURKEY VULTURE
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Killdeer
Long-billed Curlew
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Loggerhead Shrike
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Violet-green Swallow
Marsh Wren
European Starling
American Robin
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Sage Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark

Andy and Ellen Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net