Washington birders,

I am visiting from South Carolina this week, based here in Seattle near Seward Park. My son and I plan a trip to the Okanogan Thursday and Friday. If anyone is going out there on those days and would like to link up somewhere, let me know, I'd love the help and the company, although I ususally do OK out west on my own.

Steve Compton
cell (843) 709-2554
---- Gina Sheridan <gsherida8502 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Yesterday's late night decision, resulted in another trip to the Waterville Plateau today (2/07/09). With only a bit over a half day to bird, Michael & Roger Woodruff, and I left well before dawn. Freezing fog hung over the West Plains out past Reardan, but the skies cleared farther west. Temps for the day ranged from freezing to +4 degrees.
>
> En route, we decided to try for possible early Sage Grouse, but the road leading to the Leahy Junction Lek were unplowed. Bailing on the Sage Grouse option, we continued east on Hwy 172 and ran into a flock of forty SNOW BUNTINGs as well as the expected HORNED LARKs. Perched on a large rounded rock at the southeast corner of Hwy 172 & Heritage Road, we had nice scope views of an adult GYRFALCON.
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> Since I had dipped the Douglas County Hawk Owl on several previous attempts, I felt my pulse rate increase as we approached the farmstead near the junction of roads B NE and 16 NE. Fortunately, the dark blob in the tall deciduous tree on the west side of the road turned out to be the highly anticipated NORTHERN HAWK OWL.
>
> As Michael clicked away with his camera, Roger and I enjoyed incredible scope views of the preening Hawk Owl. During our twenty minute observation interval, the owl remained unperturbed by us, and never once flew off it's perch. Thanks again to Steve Pink for finding this great bird at this location and for so many other helpful folks that provided detailed current status details.
>
> In the Mansfield Cemetery, we flushed a pair of GREAT HORNED OWLs and a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. From the spruce tree tops, a pair of WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS (male & female) entertained us with a marvelous preening show. We were oohing and aahing over every plumage details of these exquisite birds.
>
> In the town of Mansfield, we saw a couple of EURASIAN COLLARED DOVEs. Working roads G NE & H NE, we simply dipped on the Snowy Owls, and the Heritage Thicket did not contain any Long-eared Owls. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKs were scattered around the plateau.
>
> Back on Hwy 172 (east of Heritage Road), we had stunning views of the adult GYRFALCON. When we were a point blank range from the bird and Michael was frantically clicking away on his camera, we could hear the Gyrfalcon vocalizing! The Gyr languidly drifted from pole to pole, and it was hard to leave this dynamic bird.
>
> Considering that we had limited time, we wanted to make an attempt on finding WW Crossbills in Grant County. Sun Lakes State Park was cold, shady, and only offered us a couple of spruce trees on which to gaze. A NORTHERN SHRIKE was the best bird in the park. At Dry Falls Junction (Grant Co.) there was a nice adult Golden Eagle.
>
> While Roger was refueling at service station in Coulee City, Michael and I split up to find WW Crossbills. For some reason, I was drawn to three spruce trees on the north edge of town. When I scanned the spruce trees with my binoculars, I saw two male WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLs!
>
> Excited by my discovery, I called out to Michael, but he had disappeared. As Roger drove toward my position, I frantically waved him down. After collecting Michael, we relocated one off the WW Crossbills in the same tree. This bird was vocalizing quite a bit, and then it flew off toward the grove of spruce trees that Michael had been previously surveying. On the corner of McEntee and Locust, we was a male WW Crossbill perched on the top of a tall spruce.
>
> Later, a neighbor lady allowed us into her backyard and all of shared some lovely views of this marvelous bird. It was quite satisfying to finally find this species in Grant County.
>
> East of Coulee City, we saw a cooperative PRAIRIE FALCON on a power pole. Ending our birding in Davenport, we didn't see any crossbills in the cemetery, but there were hundreds of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGs swirling around town.
>
> Gina Sheridan
> Snowkan (Spokane)
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