Hi Tweeters,

I spent the morning doing a quick solo trip to Robinson Canyon and Wenas Road in the Ellensburg area. I found a decent selection of mainly residents in these areas - highlights below:

Robinson Canyon - the best birds for me here were a Lark Sparrow up on the rocky hillside and 2 Yellow-breasted Chats near the entrance gate. It was great to get looks at many singing Bullock's Oriole, Lazuli Bunting, and House Wren.

Wenas area:
The drive in on Umtanum Rd produced Mountain and Western Bluebird and Brewer's and Lark Sparrow.

A brief walk from the parking lot for Umtanum Falls was productive, yielding a Dusky Flycatcher, Red-naped Sapsucker, a Townsend's Solitaire, and my highlight of the trip - 2 showy birds I'd been hoping to see cooperatively showing simultanously - a Lewis's Woodpecker and a MacGillivray's Warbler (the warbler, surprisingly to me and unlike the other Macs I heard today, sang for a bit 30 feet up on a completely exposed bare twig). Both birds did just manage to "escape" before I was able to aim and focus in with my digiscoping setup.

I ended my trip by driving up Wenas Rd into the ponderosa pine zone about 3-4 miles past the Falls. A stop about a mile into this zone was nice, yielding a White-headed Woodpecker, Cassin's Vireo, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch. A final stop at the near edge of this zone produced my hoped-for-lifer of the day: a Gray Flycatcher, which did not sing, but did cooperate by repeatedly wagging its tail downward.

A nice morning, and I wish I could have stayed for the rest of the day in the area.

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA