Sherry and I visited the newly opened trail at Steigerwald NWR and we found it very nice. We did have to explain the rules to some people that were jogging and walking dogs. The posted rules are on a small sign on the board, so most folks overlook them. We did tallied 36 species here. Some of the birds seen were,

Hooded Merganser
Northern Harrier - 1 pair
Turkey Vulture - 2
American Kestrel
American Bittern - 1 doing a fly by
Rufous Hummingbird
Purple Martin
Western Wood Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Swainson's Thrush
Scrub Jay
House Wren
Warbling Vireo
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat (lots)
Western Meadowlark
Bullock's Oriole
Black-headed Grosbeak


Next, we went to Beacon Rock State Park (Skamania Co.) and hiked the Hamilton Mountain Trail up to Hardy and Rodney Falls. Here are some of the birds we found,

Hairy Woodpecker
Rufous Hummingbird
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Swainson's Thrush
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Warbling Vireo
Wilson's Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Western Tanager


Our last stop was at Dougan Creek Falls Recreation area (Skamania Co.) where we found
3 American Dippers.



Dave Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia, WA