Here are some additional notes from my trip to Mansfield on my
successful NORTHERN HAWK OWL quest yesterday, Wednesday February18th.
To start the day of right at first light, I had a VARIED THRUSH, SONG
SPARROW and DARK-EYED JUNCO in my backyard. It was foggy along I- 90
and Snoqualmie Pass turned out to be bare and WET and 30 degrees, not
dry as promised. This raised the question of possible icy road
conditions and the wisdom of going on this trip. The fog really came
down to the deck on the east side around Cle Elum at 29 degrees - now
maybe this was the freezing fog the weatherman had talked about? It
started breaking up, but closed back in at the Columbia River Gorge.
I had a female AMERICAN KESTREL and a WESTERN MEADOWLARK on the
telephone wire along Rt.281 heading north to Quincy. After spotting
two large and strangely compact rafts of hundreds of AMERICAN COOTS
north of Wenatchee at Turtle Rock along Rt. 2/97 on the Columbia
River, I doubled back to Turtle Back Road and found a good spot to
have my sandwiches and scope the river. In addition to the Coots, I
found two COMMON LOONS, a number of HORNED GREBES, RUDDY DUCKS,
GREATER SCAUP, BUFFLEHEAD, CANVASBACK and COMMON GOLDENEYES on the
river. A BALD EAGLE, BELTED KINGFISHER and GREAT BLUE HERON were
keeping an eye on the action.
Heading up on Rt. 2 , I had a single STELLER'S JAY roadside in the
mountains on the way to Waterville. Once I came out onto the
Waterville Plateau, I was amazed at the amount of snow, even though
all the roads were dry. - East of Douglas, I watched two beautiful
male NORTHERN HARRIERS having a minor territorial dispute over the
hunting rights over the snow scape. I turned north on Rt.172 and
immediately had several ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS either on poles, flying or
hovering. The trip total was 10 for the day with two handsome dark
morphs. HORNED LARKS along Rt. 172 became more numerous and I had
brief views of a flock of SNOW BUNTINGS, but a passing car spooked
them.
After successfully locating the NORTHERN HAWK OWL at B and 15th as I
reported yesterday, I went back into Mansfield. Coming from the west,
I turned south at the very first street on the right and directly
across from the school. A flock of sparrows in a hedge made me stop,
hoping for something unusual - sparrow or finch. It turned out to be a
rather large group of ordinary HOUSE SPARROWS. Considering that I am
hard pressed these days to even locate the three remaining sparrows in
my Federal Way neighborhood, it was an interesting find. The presence
of a grain elevator in Mansfield may have something to do with it!
Next thing I noticed a CALIFORNIA QUAIL underneath the hedge, and
another, and another! It appears that the resident there has a major
feeding operation going and I guessed at least 60 or more Quail in
the backyard with more flying in from down the street all the time. A
pine tree in the same yard held at least a dozen EUROPEAN COLLARED
DOVES preening and likely there were more. There also were a few
EUROPEAN STARLINGS. The only RED-TAILED HAWK I saw in the Mansfield
area launched from the top of the old grain elevator, showing of its
beautiful tail.
On the way home in the late afternoon, heading south on Rt.17 towards
Coulee City, the fog closed back in at 34 degrees. Following a trucker
in the fog made things quite interesting. Visibility improved at Dry
Falls State Park and I was able to pass the semi. Below Sun Lake SP,
I had a bird fly by, which looked like a LEWIS WOODPECKER, however
with no place to pull over and my trucker friend barreling down my
tail, I had no way to identify it. I am not sure if it is a winter
bird in Eastern Washington?

Good Birding!

Hans Feddern
Twin Lakes - Federal Way
253-874-0896