Hey Tweets,

Today, Gina Sheridan, my dad Roger, and I had an excellent day birding in Douglas, Okanogan, Grant, and Chelan Counties. We looked over both areas along Hwy 17 for the Hawk Owl(s), but couldn't turn one up. At Bridgeport SP, we encountered an excellent flock of 8 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS. These birds flew around a couple times and also spent time foraging quietly on the spruce cones. Fun birds.

Along Hwy 17, between MP 139 & 140, an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW was with a flock of juncos. In Bridgeport we had a MERLIN, and just west there was a PRAIRIE FALCON. We continued to Bridgeport Bar where we relocated the wintering HARRIS'S SPARROW past the corner of Moe and Grange Rds. A large flock of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS here and another a little later totalled over 1000 birds, and we continually encountered flocks throughout the day.

West towards Brewster, at a pullout just southeast of MP 10, we scoped a female LONG-TAILED DUCK close in to shore. There were also a number of RUDDY DUCKS at this location and in general good numbers of waterfowl along the river. We worked Central Ferry Canyon, where there were large numbers of RED CROSSBILLS, and calling WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH with other localized Douglas County species.

Back up in Okanogan County, after another MERLIN in Brewster, we checked the location at Starr Rd that briefly hosted the Arctic Loon last winter. We had about a dozen COMMON LOONS there. It's interesting how they congregate in this spot.

The YELLOW-BILLED LOON was loafing off Lakeside Park at the south end of Lake Chelan where Richard Hendrick reported it on Wednesday. It provided an excellent study, just resting there without any sort of feeding activity. The dark auricular spot was particularly noticeable, in addition to the pale slightly upturned bill, general buffy appearance, and scaled back. On the Chelan River there were 10 BARROW'S GOLDENEYE and a good raft of both Scaup sp.

We decided to cut back across the Waterville Plateau, and going up McNeil Canyon Rd just before the summit, an excellent flock of 100 GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCHES were working the road cut. As seems to be normal in the area, ~95% were Hepburn's and only a few were of the interior form.

Right after sunset we located 3 LONG-EARED OWLS and 1 SHORT-EARED OWL at Steamboat Rock SP. The Long-eareds were in the regular area, although further back than I've seen, and the Short-eared flew from a roadside post half way to the campground along the entrance road. Short-eared Owl has been a long-time nemesis for Gina in Grant County, so that bird was particularly satisfying.

We made an attempt for Saw-whet Owls in Northrup Canyon, but for whatever reason they didn't want to cooperate.

A great winter day with some quality birds.

Good birding!
Michael Woodruff
Spokane, WA

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? Hotmail??more than just e-mail.
http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_howitworks_012009