Hi Tweets

On Tuesday Eastside Audubon took a trip east of the Cascades to the Vantage area. We left Issaquah under cloudy skies and by the time we got near Snoqualmie Pass we had light snow. The road was pretty clear and we had no trouble getting over the pass. The snow is quite high now and lined the roads for quite a ways down the eastside of the mountains.

By the time we got to Easton we had picked up a couple of AMERICAN CROWs. It was quiet all the way down to Cle Elum, but there were several TUNDRA SWANS on the borrow ponds on the south side of I-90. Coming down in toward Ellensburg we saw RED-TAILED HAWK, GREAT BLUE HERON, CANADA GOOSE and MALLARD.

We wanted to be out to sage country early so we blasted past the Ellensburg area and out to Kittitas where we picked up EUROPEAN STARLING, KILLDEER, AMERICAN ROBIN. Along Caribou Rd. there was a nice covey of CALIFORNIA QUAIL, MOURNING DOVE, SONG SPARROW, BELTED KINGFISHER, Red-tails on a nest, and an absolutely gorgeous ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. At the pond on Parke Creek Rd. we saw RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD, BREWER'S BLACKBIRD, CANADA GOOSE, WILSON'S SNIPE, and NORTHERN PINTAIL.

Out along Vantage Highway we picked up a nice male MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD. We walked the area along the old pavement section near the entrance to the Wildhorse Wind Farm and had a SAGE SPARROW come in and play hide and seek with us. It finally perched on a fence post about 20 feet away and proceeded to sing - some of the best looks I have ever had and a life bird for 4 people on the trip, including Mike from Chicago. Down the road at the Quilomene Wildlife Area we were able to call in a SAGE THRASHER that came closer and closer, then circled around us onto the eastern slope and scurried along the ground. It was joined by a second bird. We had a flock of MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDs moving along the slope a ways off, but they really showed because of the bright blue of the males. We could head the tinkle of HORNED LARK, but could never locate the bird. As we came back down toward the cars we had two SAGE THRASHERS singing and giving us good looks. They were joined by about 4 more.

Down at Vantage we had nice looks at VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWs, a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, HORNED GREBE, COMMON GOLDENEYE, RUDDY DUCK, and BUFFLEHEAD. A couple of SAY'S PHOEBEs were working along the cliff face using the wind to hover and search for food. Along Huntsinger Road there were large flocks of GREATER and LESSER SCAUP, an EARED GREBE, several more HORNED GREBEs, several COMMON LOONS including one with a very variant plumage (probably due to molt), a PIED-BILLED GREBE, COMMON MERGANSER, an unidentified GULL, and a distant, sleeping WHITE PELICAN. At one point we had a huge flock of VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWs circling overhead. A BALD EAGLE flew through.

As we made our way back west along I-90 we had a PRAIRIE FALCON fly by. At the pond alongside I-90 just west of the Kittitas turnoff se had RING-NECKED DUCK, AMERICAN WIGEON, AMERICAN COOT, and more TUNDRA SWANS. Scattered along the way were COMMON RAVENS, BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES, WESTERN MEADOWLARKs, HOUSE FINCH.

Other birds we saw included: RING-NECKED PHEASANT, TURKEY VULTURE, NORTHERN HARRIER, an accipiter, a sandpiper species (too distant to i.d.), ROCK PIGEON, DOWNY WOODPECKER, NORTHERN FLICKER, STELLER'S JAY, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE, and HOUSE SPARROW.

Because of the predictions of heavy snow over the pass we headed back west early and had an early trip home. It was a nice day, with quite a bit of sun, decent temperatures, relatively little wind, and lots of nice birds. We wound up with 56 species for the day, but the Sage Sparrow and Sage Thrasher were the stars of the outing.

Good Birding,

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
mail to bellasoc at isomedia dot com