I spent about an hour birding the East Beach of Soap Lake yesterday afternoon. For numbers, it was probably the best day for wading birds that I had seen. About 50 Least Sandpipers were the most prevalent along with 10 Dunlin in breeding plumage. About 10 Avocet as well. Saw one pair mating. Also a pair of Black-necked Stilts.

>From there to the south end of Banks Lake just the usual suspects were seen.

Because the birds were fairly approachable, I got some of the best wading bird pictures I've taken as yet. I almost had to back up to focus on one Least Sandpiper. It was a real pleasure to see these little gems at that range.

However, I'm still working on getting the pictures of my Oklahoma trip up, so yesterdays pictures will have to wait. I have probably 2/3 of the Oklahoma pictures done. They can be seen at http://canondigitalslrs.com

Take care,
Ron McCluskey
rmcclsky at mindspring dot com