I don't care what officialdom says, yesterday was the first day of summer by
my count, and the convertible and I had appointments planned over on the
east side.



I set off at 4am so I could be in Vantage around 6.30 for yet another
attempt on my life bird chukar. I drove along Huntzinger Road, admiring the
birds on the wires - western meadowlarks singing everywhere, LARK SPARROW,
WESTERN KINGBIRD, ROCK WREN - and almost missed the lone CHUKAR that jumped
out from behind a rock on the right side of the road and meandered up the
slopes. It was bigger than I expected, which is always nice, when so often
the reverse is true! A great start to the tour - 7.15 and my big target bird
for the day had already cooperated.



Down at the cirque below the dam, it was mostly cliff swallows with a few
violet-greens - there seemed to be a lot more of the violet-greens here
last year. Not much else was moving there, surprisingly, no flycatchers, no
finches or warblers. A GREAT HORNED OWL flew in just as I was about to
leave, and settled on one of the deeper ledges on the south side. Not a
bird I would ever have spotted if I hadn't watched him arrive! On the
Columbia were a few scaup, a single common loon and a beautiful pair of
breeding plumaged EARED GREBE. Also a beaver or nutria type creature, I
didn't get to see the tail.



Wanapum State Park was quiet, all robins, house finches and starlings. My
next stop was the boat launch below Gingko State Park Interpretive Centre,
which was also quiet initially, turning up only three CALIFORNIA QUAIL on
the road in and a WESTERN WOOD PEEWEE. After 15 mins, though, two
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS flew in, then some YELLOW_RUMPEDs. I tracked down a
BULLOCK's ORIOLE chattering and burbling away in a tree, and then found
WILSON'S WARBLER and YELLOW WARBLERS had appeared too.



9am found me at the interpretive centre overlook, where everyone else sees
white-throated swifts and I never do. That didn't change yesterday, so they
remain a Nevada bird for me instead of a Washington bird. I'll get them at
Palouse Falls on the way back from Walla Walla, I swear.... The overlook did
get me a TURKEY VULTURE flying north along the cliffs and a PEREGRINE FALCON
that swooped below me. I fell in love with two stilt-legged ball of fluff
killdeer, working hard not to flatten them as brainless parent killdeer led
them meandering across the road. I wonder what happened to the rest of the
brood?



I crossed the river into Grant County and headed along SR-26 to the
Grant/Adams County Line ponds. Here I found my first red-tailed hawks (I
never did see any in Kittitas, all day, bizarrely). A single WHITE PELICAN
floated south of the road, and western kingbirds lined the wires. At the
ponds were the expected large numbers of AMERICAN AVOCET, BLACK-NECKED STILT
and WILSON'S PHALAROPE, also a few CINNAMON TEAL and a pair of REDHEAD. Four
FORSTER'S TERNS made a flyby, one taking a dip but coming up empty - another
life bird for me, since I failed to find them on a couple of trips to
Potholes Wildlife Area last year, or over the Columbia.



I took Dodson Rd north from SR-26 to the Frenchman Hill Rd ponds. Many more
BLACK-NECKED STILTS, a greater variety of ducks (wigeon, shoveler, gadwall)
and the YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS, of course. I've found bank swallows here
before, and there were certainly a lot of swallows, but they were persistent
in flying inches above the water, with no breasts on view, so I couldn't
call them. No swallows wanted to sit on the wires at all.



Back on SR-26, just west of Royal City, a SWAINSON'S HAWK circled south of
the road, with its distinctive dark flight feathers and breast band, for my
third life bird of the day. I'm sure they've been around when I've driven
that road before, I'm just getting better at noticing things!



At noon I started the Old Vantage Highway run at the Gingko Petrified Forest
trails. The house finches were singing beautifully by the buildings, along
with the robins and meadowlarks and a few yellow-rumped warblers. The hills
were quiet, but a great place to eat lunch, with the views, and the breeze
sweeping up from the river.



The Quilomene was deathly quiet - a few singing sage thrashers and one
singing Brewer's sparrow, all very distant from the road/trail with no
chance of a visual. I've always found the Quilomene to be disappointing when
I've visited. I'd put it down to the fact that, whichever end of the Highway
I start from, it's always the non-birdy time of day when I end up there, but
half an hour and two miles up the road later, the wind farm was much more
lively - MOUNTAIN and WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, HORNED LARK and BREWER'S SPARROW
all put in appearances there.



Closer to the pump house at MP 14.5, I stopped to watch a bluebird and
finally got a visual on a SAGE THRASHER, after five minutes of peering over
a fence at a nearby bush producing sage thrasher song. It eventually emerged
from the depths to put on its show on the top branch, and allowed me some
photos.



Bizarre misses - Sage Sparrow. No, really. I heard a couple singing
(literally a couple, unlike the ubiquitous sage thrashers) along the
highway, but never did set eyes on one. I think they were all taking their
afternoon siesta. Also the birds on a wire mix was lacking - everybody was
a bluebird or an occasional western kingbird. Not a sign of a loggerhead
shrike or a Say's phoebe all day.



On the return journey, I did a quick tour around Reecer Creek and Hungry
Junction Roads north of Ellensburg, in the vague hope of long-billed curlew,
but that's really a job that needs a passenger to scan the fields as you
drive. Stopping to scan each field semi-thoroughly myself would just have
taken too long.



My last stop was the Elk Heights Burn off exit 93 of I-90, at 4.30pm. Last
year when I stopped by this spot, I walked up the hill, heard the soft
drumming, and tracked down a black-backed woodpecker in a little over 5
minutes. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so easy every time, and it
wasn't! The trees were alive with CASSIN'S FINCHES, which is always a
delight, and bird activity generally was high. There were large numbers of
robins, and several Steller's jays and crows moving around, which meant
there was no shortage of larger birds in flight to pan my binoculars onto.
The smaller birds were far too distracting as well, with my first WESTERN
TANAGERS of the day seen here, including the only western tanager I've ever
found that would pose for photos, and also a beautiful, perfectly plumaged
CHIPPING SPARROW. I had a moment of hope when I found woodpeckers with black
backs, but under the binoculars they turned into a nice pair of hairies. I
never did hear that soft drumming, or any drumming at all, despite the
presence of the hairy contingent, and I gave up after an hour and went home.



As usual, the birds do what they will, and while a couple of the expected
and sought for failed to show their faces, two of the barely hoped for and
not really targeted swopped in to replace them. A stunning day with the sun,
the desert and the birds.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland