I just got back last night from three epic days of birding eastern Washington scabland. The first day the weather was somewhat dreary and windy, but the next two days the sun came out and the birds and the views were incredible.

Highlights:

Monday

2 Snow Buntings on hwy 172 near Withrow in a large flock of Horned Larks

Northern Hawk Owl still present at the B road homestead

1 Gyrrfalcon on Mansfield Boulevard about a mile or two south of town

2 Golden Eagles down near Jameson Lake soaring and diving above the lichen stained cliffs

10 Long-eared Owls at Steamboat Rock State Park

1 Yellow-billed Loon still behind the Chief Joesph Dam on Murphy Rd

Tuesday

I arrived at the B road homestead to meet up with Tom Aversa and Ryan Merrill and the Hawk owl was in a tree right on the road. When the sun burned away the fog in the late morning I got incredible views of this bird, which must have already eaten breakfast because he seemed very sleepy and did not move around much.

On the way to Mansfield Ryan and Tom had a single Lapland Longspur somewhere on hwy 172 mixed in a large flock of Horned
Larks.

3 Golden Eagles at various locations, 1 at Jameson Lake and 2 more in route to Bridgeport

8 Snow Buntings from Leahy Junction to Pearl Hill Rd on Niles Rd

1 Yellow-billed Loon still at Chief Joesph Dam, the bird was much closer on Tuesday and we had great looks in great light.

125 Bohemian Waxwings on Grange Rd near Bridgeport

Tom and Ryan had a total of 10 Rough-legged Hawks this day, 6 before arriving at the Hawk Owl spot

Wednesday

We woke up Wednesday in Okanogan at 2:30 in the morning and headed up to Havillah for some owling. On the way to the Havillah Snow Park we had 3 perched Great Horned Owls.

At the snowpark we had 2 Barred and 2 Saw-whet Owls. We got real nice looks at one of the Barred and the other three were heard only. On our way to Chesaw we heard two more Great Horned.

8 White-winged Crossbills, 6 males and 2 females at the Havillah Snowpark later in the morning.

8 Pine Grosbeaks on Nealy Road

125 Gray-crowned Rosy-finches at the feeders on Nealy Rd and 1 Clark's Nutcracker calling.

10 Gray Patridge on Mary Anne Creek Road

4 Northern Pygmy-owls heard from various locations in the highlands

1 Beautful Harlan's Hawk near Ellisforde

2 Merlin 1 in Mallott and 1 in Okanogan

200 Bohemian Waxwings at various locations

1 Eurasian Collared-dove in Mallott and 1 in Okanogan

7 Sharp-tailed Grouse flying over the hill at the Scotch Creek Wildlife Area, also present here was a flock of 150 Common Redpolls. Unfortunetly the sun had already dipped below the hills behind us and the birds were quite a ways away, so we couldn't look through them near as well as we would have liked.

All told it was an icredbile three days of birding and I was sorry to have to leave. I'll post some pictures on my flickr site soon, I have a lot to sort through. Until then good day and good birding.

Joel Brady-Power
fvnerka at hotmail.com
Anacortes, Wa 98221



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