Tweets,
Spent a wonderful day in Kittitas County today with some time at Sentinel Bluffs (just across the Columbia River in Grant County). Of special note was that the water at Vantage was glass-like and it was even warm enough to have quite a bit of flying insects out!

Many highlights. Nothing super rare. Below are some of the notables:

Teanaway Bridge-Hwy. 10- 1 Bewick's Wren. This is the furthest west in the county I have found this species to date.

Kittitas Valley-many rough-legged hawks beginning to move in. A total of 8 counted. Also present among a mixed flock of Horned Lark and American Pipit was a LAPLAND LONGSPUR in a grassy field on Robbins Rd. First alerted to its presence by its flight call as the flock flew past me.

Sorenson Pond (the Pond just south of I-90) off of Berry Rd. in Ellensburg. Jan Demorest found an immature SNOW GOOSE on Friday and the bird was still present today along with a wonderful mixed flock of Cackling and Canada Goose. At least 2 different races of Cacklers including several minima. Also present here were 4 Western Grebes.

Sentinel Bluffs-
1 Clark's Grebe
2 Eared Grebe
1 Greater white-fronted goose (imm.)
2 Herring Gull
1 Pacific Loon
1 Winter Wren
1 immature BAND-TAILESS PIGEON **

**The band-tailed pigeon was completely missing its tail, meaning it likely won't be leaving anytime soon. It was found at the south end of the trail at Sentinel Bluffs, I first flushed the bird off the ground and it managed to get itself up into the cottonwood where it perched while I watched it for the next 5 minutes. A nice unexpected bird for the Columbia River!

Wanapum St. Park-
Huge rafts of waterfowl, most quite a ways out in the river. Notables:
Red-breasted Merganser-1
Surf Scoter-3
White-winged Scoter-2
Clark's Grebe-1
Bonaparte's Gull-4
Varied Thrush-12 (nice flock in the day use area)

Wanapum Dam-
Common Loon-13 (notable number)
Surf Scoter-1

A wonderful day.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA