Hi Tweeters,

I went to the nearly-north country again on Saturday. As I drove
through Entiat I saw a flock of 30 Cedar Waxwings and one Bohemian
Waxwing, the only one I saw all day. First stop was in Chelan
looking for the Yellow-billed Loon that has been seen there for the
past couple of weeks. There were many Horned Grebes on the Lake and
one female White-winged Scoter. At lakeside Park there were two
Herring Gulls and one Ring-billed Gull. On the river at the east end
of Chelan were quite a few ducks including Barrow's Goldeneyes and
Lesser Scaup. I also saw a crow chasing a Sharp-shinned Hawk. After
searching for the loon for about two hours or so and not finding it,
I headed toward Bridgeport following the Columbia River past Pateros
and Brewster. South of Pateros I saw 18 Common Loons and a
scattering of ducks.

I crossed the river at Brewster and found Andy and Ellen Stepniewski
and Stan and Lori Isley on Grange Road north of Bridgeport. I
followed Ellen's footprints through the snow to get photos of the
Long-eared Owl they had found.

The Harris's Sparrow finally popped out of the brush at the corner of
Grange Road and Moe Road but was too far away for good photos.

After searching the trees in Bridgeport for waxwings and crossbills
and finding none, I stopped at Bridgeport State Park, which was
deviod of birds except for one Cooper's Hawk and two flickers.

As I headed back to Lake Chelan for another try at the loon, I saw a
Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk in a tree east of Brewster. It posed nicely
for photos.

I called Andy to see where they were and he yelled into the phone,
"Yellow-billed Loon, Yellow-billed Loon!!!" It took me 20 minutes to
get into Chelan where I found them at Lakeside Park. We chased the
loon up the lake a ways and back towards town, with Ellen and me
trying to get photos. It was not very obliging as it moved
continually, staying on the surface just long enough to catch its breath.

I put photos of the Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk, the owl and the one
decent photo I got of the Yellow-billed Loon in the new photos folder
on my website.

Denny Granstrand
Southwest of the Yakima airport and beyond
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* dgranstrand at charter.net *
* Denny's bird photos can be seen online at: *
http://granstrand.net/gallery/