Morning Tweets,

Yesterday, the trail to Umtanum Falls south of Ellensburg provided some very nice birds, of note-- a pair of Black throated grays and a pair of Townsend's warblers, several Calliope and Rufus hummers, either a Gray or Pacific-slope flycatcher (I'm leaning toward the Gray) and a Willow flycatcher. Others reported seeing White-headed woodpeckers, but we weren't lucky enough to spot one. Also, along the bluebird trail, two boxes (#9 and #11) have eggs. These were Western bluebird boxes. Several Nashville warblers were spotted along Umtanun Rd. along with dozens of Yellow-rumps, Western Meadowlarks, Purple finches, a Northern oriole, Brewer's, White and Golden crowned sparrows, Spotted towhees, kestrels, turkey vultures, red-tail hawks and other usual residents.

Three common Loons were spotted on Wenas Lake.

Earlier in the morning while driving along Hwy. 10 from Cle Elum to Ellensburg we spotted a female Hooded merganser with 8 babies on a pond on the north side of the road. (Very cute) A odd squabble between two Canada geese sent one up onto a tree snag where it sat for quite a while.

All in all the day provided some very nice birds but some very wet conditions.

Patti Brent (Vancouver, WA.)