I took a trip out east Tue/Wed/Thu, ostensibly to find shorebirds and early passerine migrants, but really mostly to escape the city for some R&R. Varyingly successful on all counts.
First stop Tuesday was Huntzinger Road out of Vantage, in hopes of lingering Black-throated Sparrow. It seemed the noonday heat was too much for all the birds save the tenacious Rock Wrens, which scolded from every available perch. At Wanapum SP, the birdiest spot was, as usual, the northwest corner of the beach area. Couldn?t find the Dennys? redstart, but a good sign of passerine migration was a Western Tanager (picked up in good numbers at almost every stop on this trip,) and too many Yellow Warblers to have possibly bred there. The strutting, self-important Brewer?s Blackbirds ruled the grass, while in the trees above were a Warbling Vireo, a very bold RB Nuthatch clinging to a branchlet just above my head, and an angry foursome of Eastern Kingbirds that appeared to be mobbing a Black-billed Magpie.
Next, I swung south along SR 243, seeing a mind-boggling number of American White Pelicans en route to a quick stop at the little rest area by the Vernita Bridge on SR 24. The pines here proved to be a roost for at least 5 Common Nighthawks, perfectly camouflaged on the rough, bare branches, except for their stark white throat crescents.
Onward to the Tri-Cities, where water levels were too high to support decent shorebirding. The Yakima delta hosted at least 8 Great Egrets, and a lone Forster?s Tern among many Caspians. The only non-Killdeer shorebirds were way out on a tern/gull/cormorant/pelican-encrusted sandbar. Through my cheesy scope, I could only confidently ID a Black-necked Stilt, a Baird?s Sandpiper and a Greater Yellowlegs. The remaining few ?pipers had to remain ?Calidris sp.? The Walla Walla River delta?s few shorebirds were a little closer, with Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, a pair of (presumably) Long-billed Dowitchers, and a Wilson?s Phalarope threading through the roosting dabblers.
Feeling shorebird withdrawal, I raced the dropping sun to the county line ponds on SR 26. There, on the south pond, I found plenty of mud, and enough light to spot plenty o? ?pipers and plovers:

Killdeer 5
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER 1
American Avocet 4
Black-necked Stilt 5
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Baird?s Sandpiper 1
Western Sandpiper ~20
Least Sandpiper ~50
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER 1
Long-billed Dowitcher 3
Wilson?s Snipe 1
Wilson?s Phalarope 3
Red-necked Phalarope 1
Also one roosting Forster?s Tern.
The salmon sun shortly transformed all the peeps into Red-necked and Little Stints, so I retired To Potholes with my tent, and was serenaded to sleep by coyote song, accompanied by the hum of 1,000 mosquito wings.
Next morning, up and at ?em for a tour of songbird migrant traps, starting with Washtucna?s famous Bassett Park. A good 30 species attended the show, including the resident trio of (semi-)Wild Turkeys. The only definite migrants were several Western Tanagers, including one gorgeous male who posed in an elm with a Lazuli Bunting for a fantastic color study. Again, the only warblers I could find were 3 or 4 Yellows.
The cemetery at Harrington boasted an Olive-sided Flycatcher among the more pee-wee WW Pewees.
Davenport?s cemetery was much busier, with around 20 species, including a Yellow-rumped (Audubon?s) Warbler, a Least Flycatcher, and 3 Bullock?s Orioles and some House Finches mobbing an irritated Great Horned Owl. This last spectacle was in a fir in the one little plot that?s rather unsociably chained off from the rest. A House Wren was busy feeding what must be a second brood of whiny nestlings in a very Brown Creeper-esque nest wedged into a narrow tree crotch.
Reardan Ponds had a few barely discernible peeps on distant mud at the far east end. The far west end, distantly viewable from the highway, looked to have plenty of mud, but no access. Also present: lots of Ruddy Ducks, coots and cootlets, gorgeous breeding-plumaged Eared Grebes, and a good icterid show, starring Brewer?s and Yellow-headed Blackbirds and a Brown-headed Cowbird pacing the shoreline together.
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Sprague STP was utterly dead, save for a lone Spotted Sandpiper and a cloud of Bank Swallows.
South on SR 23 towards Sheep Lake, the first pond held four Long-billed Dowitchers and both Yellowlegs (2 Greater, 1 Lesser) in the foreground mud, and a hazy Black-necked Stilt on the far side. The next pond, immediately before the Whitman County line, would have been a perfect field trip for the Tringa 101 class: the south end boasted a Greater Yellowlegs towering over two Lesser Yellowlegs and a Solitary Sandpiper, all in one binocular view.
I continued on to Sheep Lake, which has apparently been a good shorebird spot of late, but saw exactly four ?pipers: half Spotties and half Baird?s.
I then set a course for Kamiak Butte County Park, east of Colfax, in an attempt to bolster my Whitman County list, which, until yesterday, stood at zero. The drive is beautiful, snaking through curvaceous hills clothed in amber waves of grain. Buteos were everywhere, including lots of Red-tailed, several Swainson?s, and one ghostly Ferruginous Hawk. I had never realized how aggressively Eurasian Collared-doves had been colonizing Washington before this trip! Every three-digit-population town in my path (Lamont, St. John?s, Steptoe?) was ringing with their trisyllabic cooing.
After the long drive through nothing but wheat and other grasses, with one stop to allow a Gray Partridge hen and her gaggle of chicks to cross safely, the entrance to Kamiak Butte County Park seemed like the gateway to another planet. Weedy fields give way abruptly to pine forest with a thick shrubby undergrowth that just reeked of Macgillivray?s Warblers. The busiest area seemed to be the small, weedy clearing just below the ranger?s cabin, with Yellow & Nashville Warblers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, a Black-chinned Hummer, Western Tanager, Gray Catbird, Black-capped & Mountain Chickadees, Warbling Vireo, Downy Woodpecker, and a Western Wood-pewee busily feeding the next generation. Rather than amass a billful of bugs, it was nabbing one insect at a time, and ferrying it straight to the fledgling?s wide, pink mouth. A male Rufous Hummingbird was jealously guarding the feeder on the ranger?s cabin, but dropped his guard just long enough to allow a
quick sip by a tiny Calliope Hummer.
At dusk, I followed the screeching of a waking Great Horned Owl, and was rewarded with wonderful, prolonged , eye-level looks at its lopsided-looking face. The right ear-tuft was stubby from molt or some other more sinister factor. The sounds of this owl and its mate and/or offspring continued well after dark around the campground, punctuated by thunder and the welcome plopping of fat raindrops.
Up at 5:30, I hiked the loop trail to the summit. The forest was full of bird calls, about 95% of which seemed to come from House Wrens and Western Wood-pewees. The hoped-for Cassin?s Finch never showed, but Red Crossbills didn?t disappoint. The unexpected avian highlight was a soaring male Northern Goshawk, seed from above through a window in the pines. Wow. Near the summit spur trail, the orchid-lover in me got a thrill from a dense patch of coralroots, heavily laden with seed. Elegant Habenaria (or whatever they?ve been renamed) graced the trailside further down with their few remaining raggedy flowers. The goshawk?s-eye-view from the summit would have made even a birdless and orchidless hike worthwhile. It made the whole drive from Seattle (I shamefully logged just over 1,000 miles in 3 days) worthwhile. To anyone else who?s never been to this oasis, I highly recommend the trip.
The return trip was too hurried for proper birding. I attempted to relive the previous day?s glories at Washtucna and the County Line Ponds, which served as a lesson in the ethereal nature of migratory birds. Washtucna, at a later hour than the previous visit, was ruled almost solely by the collared-doves. The County Line Ponds? inhabitants had changed as follows:
Semipalmated Plover: gone
Long-billed Dowitchers: nearly doubled
Black-necked Stilts: nearly doubled
Lesser Yellowlegs: gone
Greater Yellowlegs: two of three gone
Baird?s Sandpiper: gone
Western Sandpipers: halved
Least Sandpipers: +15
Semipalmated Sandpiper: still around
Red-necked Phalarope: gone
Wilson?s Phalarope: 2 of 3 gone
No larids in sight.
A quick drive home in fading daylight. Stop at Wanapum SP aborted due to high winds. Only a robin and the Ring-billed Gulls dared brave the gale out in the open.
The trailhead at Ginkgo Petrified Forest was equally windy, but I had to try for the Townsend?s Solitaire that always seems to turn up about this time of year. This time, only a House Finch and three Eastern Kingbirds were out, seemingly flying backwards in the strong headwind.
Only the bird-nerd thoughts of new additions to year and county lists kept me awake on the long drive home, through many construction delays. Now, time to work, if solely to fund the next trip during PEAK passerine passage.
Happy migration!
Jeff Bryant
Seattle
Jbryant_68 AT yahoo.com