This July 4th weekend I birded areas of Okanogan County, hooking up
with Stefan Schlick for couple nights camping and some morning time
birding together. I started out on Friday morning traveling over Hwy.
20 making a couple of quick stops along the way at Corkindale and the
Newhalem Ponds to see BANK SWALLOW and AMERICAN REDSTART,
respectively; and the Washington and Rainy Pass areas provided EVENING
GROSBEAK and CASSIN'S FINCH. Upon arriving in Winthrop and birding at
Bear Creek Road (near the July 4th 2005 burn area), I had a GRAY
FLYCATCHER amongst many DUSKY FLYCATCHERS in the area of Pondrosa
Pines. Next I was off to the Loop Loop campground where WILLIAMSON'S
SAPSUCKER was reliable as usual (though it took about 1/2 hour to
locate one of the birds). I then made a stop along Cameron Lake Road
and had nesting RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER just as you enter the Ponderosa
Pine zone, before heading off the the Havillah Sno-Park to hook up
with Stefan and camp out for the night. On my way up to the Havillah
Sno-Park I located several BOBOLINK in a field 3.5 miles from Tonasket
along the Havillah Road, which was a real unexpected treat! That
evening Stefan and I looked for Great Gray Owl, but alas to no avail,
although we did have RED CROSSBILL, COMMON NIGHTHAWK, and heard BARRED
OWL calling.

The next morning Stefan showed me the spot where he had CLAY-COLORED
SPARROW (and singing no less) along Ninemile Road (1.9 mile from the
Chesaw Road); a couple of DUSKY GROUSE showed up for an encore. We
then parted ways for the day and I went up to the Molson Lakes to see
what would be hanging around that area, where I observed a pair of
BUFFLEHEAD (was hoping to see them on one of the lakes in the Okanogan
Highlands); also COMMON and BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, and BLACK TERN.
Birding for a little while longer in the highlands I located
GRASSHOPPER SPARROW along Davies Road about .3 mile from Chesaw Road.
At this point a decision was made to drive over to FR 39 and Long
Swamp as I wanted to see the extent of the damage from the recent
fire. At Long Swamp I had LINCOLN'S SPARROW and this is where the
damage from the fire began; I continued up FR 39 another 4 miles then
finally turned around and headed back to Long Swamp. That evening on
my way to meet up with Stefan I noticed COMMON GOLDENEYE on Conconully
Lake.

We camped out in the Salmon Meadows area (COMMON NIGHTHAWK again
this evening) and got an early start traveling the road past the
campground up to a site about 3.5 miles beyond and found AMERICAN
THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. A short distance further up the road we had
BOREAL CHICKADEE and NASHVILLE WARBLER. After parting company again,
I headed down into the Okanogan Valley stopping first in Malott where
EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE is established. Making a stop along the Soap
Lake Road on my way to the Cassimer Bar I also did not locate any
Grasshopper Sparrow (Stefan had tried the day before and also came up
empty). At Cassimer Bar (the Okanogan River Access), I found no Least
Flycatchers, which suprised me a little as they have been pretty
reliable at this spot. I did have a couple of FORSTER'S TERNS fly by
while I was looking for the Least Flycatcher. My last stop on the way
back to the westside was in Chelan County along the Camas Creek Road
off the Blewett Pass Hwy where a WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER was seen. I
had 111 species for the trip and several new ones for Okanogan County.
Okanogan County does not dissapoint, again!!!

Cheers and Good Birding;

Michael Fleming
Ballard, Washington
michaelfleming01 AT gmail.com