I was able to spend a couple of hours birding Cameron Lake Rd. today. Starting on the south end, the birds were few and far between, but there were some good finds.

A flock of 40-50 Goldfinches were up on top on the East-West portion of the road before the first left turn.

There were a pair of Tundra Swan and some Canada Geese at the southernmost lake. While watching them, an immature Golden Eagle flew overhead. Several Red-tailed Hawks were also in that area.

Past there, while looking at a flock of about 30 Red-winged Blackbirds on the phone lines, I heard some trilling calls behind me and turned around in time to see a flock of 20 or 30 birds appearing to be Snow Buntings. I just had time to get a brief impression before they disappeared over a rise. I tried using the MP3 player over the car speakers for the next mile or so off and on with no response.

Nothing further of note was seen before the last trees on the north end. I stopped there and hiked for about 45 minutes. Within a couple of minutes and not more than 30 feet from the road, I found a male White-headed Woodpecker working a tree. Shortly afterwards, a female flew over my head from the direction of the road. There were several flocks of finches that flew above tree-top level and never landed where I could see them, so really no guess on their ID. One flock of about 15 Black-capped Chickadees and many Pygmy and Red-breasted Nuthatches were there as well.

Ron McCluskey
Cheney, WA
rmcclsky at mindspring dot com