Tweets - Mark Crawford and I just returned last night from a 3-day swing
through north central Washington. We started Sunday, hiking the Pacific
Crest Trail north from Stevens Pass with Scott Ramos, before continuing on
to Camas Meadows. Monday we birded Wenache and then crossed over to Douglas
County, working our way up Moses Coulee all the way to Jameson Lake, then
heading north. We hit Barkley Canyon at sunset. Today, we birded
Bridgeport, the Bridgeport Bar, and Central Ferry Canyon, before deciding at
noon that we could squeeze in a dash for the Northern Hawk Owl.

The weather was great all three days. There weren't that many birds around,
compared to peak seasons, but the birding was still good and the scenary was
magnificant.

Highlights:

PCT from Stevens Pass: Really gorgeous VARIED THRUSH, numerous GRAY JAYS,
and a trio of SOOTY GROUSE that gave us good looks. Scott had a PINE
GROSBEAK.

Wenatchee Confluence / Horan Natural Area / Walla Walla Point Park: What a
fabulous place, right in Wenatchee.We had one CACKING GOOSE amongst all of
the Canadas, one EURASIAN WIGEON amongst the Americans, a single LEAST
SANDPIPER, and a NORTHERN SHRIKE. The best fun was a MERLIN chasing a young
PEREGRINE FALCON which then landed in the tree above our heads.

Moses Coulee: Did the hike into Hungate Canyon (Birder's Guide, p. 379),
which was a really nice spot! Had hoardes of active ravens and magpies, and
a COOPER'S HAWK chasing a terrified CHUKAR.
"ChukarChukarChukarChukarChukar" apparently translates to "Oh Sh*t". We
also had two PRAIRIE FALCONS sparring around the cliffs. PRFA were seen at
many locations in Douglas County.

Up near Jameson Lake, we walked the trail to Dutch Henry Draw (same page as
above): There were two GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH working the face of the
cliffs. They moved off to the south, but there are old Cliff Swallow nests
there, and it might be worth stopping there at dusk to see if GCRF are using
them for night roosting. There were also both RUBY-CROWNED and
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS in the waterfall.

On the Waterville Plateau: Many HORNED LARK including one stunningly yellow
one, and many AMERICAN PIPIT.

SR-174, heading east from Leahy Junction: Best ponds in the county - had
our first BUFFLEHEAD of the fall. Looked good for shorebirds, but the only
ones we saw were four probable KILLDEER flushed by a COYOTE.

Barker Canyon: WOW - what a great place. We're going to have to go back
there in spring. Not many birds at sunset/moonrise, but we did have a
WESTERN GREBE.

SR-173 between Brewster and Bridgeport: LOTS of ducks of at least 7
species. Also had AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN in both Douglas and Okanogan
counties.

Bridgeport and the Bridgeport Bar: Pretty quiet - the water level was high.
Did find COMMON MERGANSER, CEDAR WAXWING and EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE in town,
and LINCOLN'S SPARROW, WESTERN MEADOWLARK, and RED-NECKED GREBE at the bar.

Central Ferry Canyon: Lower part VERY quiet. Up in the ponderosa, had
EVENING GROSBEAK, PYGMY NUTHATCH, and MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE, plus a flyover of
a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and a really close flyover of an immature GOLDEN EAGLE.

It was noon when we got back down to Brewster, so we decided to make a run
up to Hart's Pass. Two hours later, we were creeping along the road from
the pass to the Meadows Campground when we spotted Chris Kessler at the side
of the road. He had the NORTHERN HAWK OWL scoped, and we got to watch it
for about 5 minutes before it flew west, possibly into Whatcom county. We
hiked around for an hour after that, and traversed the road a couple of
times by car, but couldn't relocate the bird. We tried driving up Slate
Peak, but the snow got too deep about 2/3s of the way up.

It was a really nice trip - about 90 species total, which isn't bad for this
time of year. Found lots of great places to go back to again, and had some
fabulous scenery.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== http://www.marymoor.org/BirdBlog.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net