Hi Tweets!

Despite having car problems and having to cut my trip short, I had an enjoyable weekend birding near Roger Lake, Hart's Pass, and Salmon Meadows in Okanogan County. There were some snowy patches beyond Roger Lake and above Hart's Pass there was about a foot of snow. I had to hike the last 1/4 mile to Slate Peak and in hopes to find ptarmigans but failed.

A pair of gracious birders, Cathy and Ted Paprocki from Seattle/Mazama, joined me for part of the trip and hosted me as well.

I started out great in the frigid temperatures on Saturday morning by finding another NORTHERN HAWK OWL near Freezeout Ridge (Elevation 6700 ft). Freezeout Pass is about 2 miles from Roger Lake.

The owl was in the large burn near the trailhead to Tiffany Mountain. The hunting area here is much larger compared to Hart's Pass as the burn goes on for miles and more spread out. The owl was actively hunting from perch to perch and was observed at quite a distance.

I would not be surprised if several hawkowl pairs have bred in the burned areas the last several years since the large Tripod and Needles fires.

Near the trailhead to Tiffany Mtn. two AMERICAN THREE TOE and one BLACK BACKED WOODPECKER were seen. En route to Tiffany Springs Campground produced two female SPRUCE GROUSE and one ROUGH LEGGED HAWK.

Roger Lake produced several AMERICAN THREE TOE WOODPECKERS, and a dozen PINE GROSBEAKS.

Hart's Pass was not so birdy but the quality was great!

We could not locate the Hart's Pass hawkowl on both days but managed to find a large flock of 150 or more GRAY CROWNED ROSYFINCHES about 2 miles before Slate Peak. They were actively feeding near the road and flushed several times as cars drove by.

Up to a dozen or more PINE GROSBEAKS graced us with their charm and color among the many mountain ash bushes. Views were excellent.

Another highlight was seeing a small flock of WHITE WINGED CROSSBILLS consisting of mostly beautiful males. For those, who might have thought I was blowing smoke through my posterior end for always reporting and seeing these enigmatic birds since the last year, I finally was able to share the moment with Cathy and Ted (lifers for them) and two car load of non-birders. We also got decent documentation photos. The birds were about 3 miles before the pass.

We had excellent scope views for 30 minutes. I was tickled that the non-birders were so engaged in watching the miniature alpine-like parrots rip apart the cones. At one point, I had a couple cones almost hit on the head!

Raptor-wise, we saw one GOLDEN EAGLE and a flyby MERLIN at Hart's Pass.

My final stop was near Salmon Meadows and Lone Frank Pass.

PINE GROSBEAKS were again represented in good numbers (around 15 birds), and more WHITE WINGED CROSSBILLS were heard but not seen. I had no problems locating a small flock of 8 BOREAL CHICKADEES mixed with mountain chickadees.

A nice male SPRUCE GROUSE was also seen above Salmon Meadows and on the way out, I found two visual NORTHERN PYGMY OWL without tooting. WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKERS AND THREE TOE WOODPECKERS were also present. A flock of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS were heard in the distance near Lone Frank Pass.

I also found one AMERICAN TREE SPARROW near Happy Hill Rd along with two NORTHERN SHRIKES near the town of Conconully.

I did take a few photos but of very poor quality, mostly for documentation.

http://www.pbase.com/spruce_grouse/recent_photos&page=all

As always, a whirlwind trip but I had a great and rewarding time!

The tuckered boreal birder,

Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon)