Today Tom Mansfield and Ken Knittle invited me to join them for a
day of birding while Tom attempted to reach the 100 species mark in
Skamania County. The day started out partly cloudy and we were free of
any precipitation other than a few sprinkles all day and Tom said that it
was his only visit to the county when the wind wasn't blowing.
Our first stop was at Franz Lake NWR where Ken immediately picked
out a TRUMPETER SWAN among the hundreds of Tundra Swans there. Near
Skamania Landing, Tom added BEWICK'S WREN and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD, a
stop at Beacon Rock to play Canyon Wren calls elicited no response.
At North Bonneville we drove along the Kidney Lake Rd. and were
able to call up one VIRGINIA RAIL, near the end of this road a Pygmy Owl
tape brought in a LINCOLN'S SPARROW along with a out of place Mountain
Chickadee. Driving back Ken spotted a COOPER'S HAWK perched in a tree
under the power lines. At Greenleaf Lake we added PIED-BILLED GREBE.
Just before Stevenson we scanned Ashes Lake where a couple of
COMMON GOLDENEYE were the next addition to the growing list. We lunched
at Rock Creek Park in Stevenson and shared our food with the feral geese
a single Greater White-fronted Goose which soon disappeared. Just before
we left the park we heard a calling White-fronted Goose over the lake and
were surprised to see the goose returning to the parking lot with its
mate and nine juveniles to beg for more food.
The mouth of the Wind River failed to produce any interesting
waterfowl or loons but we did add RED CROSSBILL and BREWER'S BLACKBIRD.
The cove at the Dog Mountain Trailhead had one NORTHERN PINTAIL in
the large flock of scaup and wigeon. We were lucky to find one REDHEAD
just past Tunnel 4 after failing to spot any in that flock where there
were six last week.
No new species were found during a check to the Spring Creek
Hatchery and we had only about a mile left to go before reaching the
Klickitat County line. We drove up Underwood-Cook Rd. to check the area
around the Underwood Cemetary, at one of the homes on Loop Rd. we spotted
two ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS coming to a feeder for Tom's 100th Skamania
County bird. A small flock of CALIFORNIA QUAIL walked out into the road
while we watched the hummers. Since we still had some daylight left Tom
opted to try for the Acorn Woodpeckers in Klickitat County so we headed
for Balch Rd. but before we had driven more than two blocks we spotted
four Merriam's WILD TURKEYS in a yard.
When we arrived at the intersection of Balch Rd. and Old Highway
8 we set up our scopes for the tedious task of watching the distant
granary tree in hopes of seeing one of the woodpeckers. After a few
minutes Ken suggested that we should play the tape of their call to see
if one might respond, within seconds we had a total of five ACORN
WOODPECKERS and a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER perched in the pines next to the
road. A stunning sight in the afternoon sun and the perfect way to end to
a very pleasant day of birding with fine company. The Acorn Woodpeckers
were a life bird for Tom, the Trumpeter Swan a county life bird for Ken
and the Wild Turkey a county year bird for me.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA
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