GRAND COULEE WATERFOWL
14 NOVEMBER 2009



Yakima Valley Audubon, under the able leadership of Bill Drenguis, headed
to the Grand Coulee lakes to check out waterfowl on this cold, but mostly
sunny day. Our first stop was Soap Lake in the Lower Grand Coulee where
Ruddy Ducks, Common Goldeneyes, and Canada Geese were the prominent members
of the waterfowl clan. Far out in the lake, careful scoping turned up a few
Redfheads, Northern Shovelers, Ring-necked Ducks, and Lesser Scaup. Eared
Grebes still numbered in the several hundreds, this being their major
concentration point in eastern Washington. Shorebirds were few but we found
a few Killdeer and several Least Sandpipers.



Our pulse rose as we hit Lake Lenore and noted it was peppered with swans,
geese, and ducks. Combined with a dramatic scene of basalt cliffs looming to
the west, this was our most memorable stop of the trip. Towards our
waterfowl goal, we spotted 17 species here, making this our best stop of the
trip for this group:



Canada Goose

Cackling Goose

Tundra Swan

Gadwall

American Wigeon

Mallard

Northern Shoveler

Northern Pintail

Canvasback

Redhead

Ring-necked Duck

Greater Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Bufflehead

Common Goldeneye

Barrow's Goldeneye

Ruddy Duck



We searched carefully for scoters and Long-tailed Duck with no luck. All
three scoters had been here in October (even Black, exceptionally rare in
eastern Washington) but these had evidently moved on to their usual
saltwater wintering sites.



Several of us kept an eye out for raptors soaring over the cliffs in the
brilliant morning sunshine, noting both Golden and Bald Eagles and
Red-tailed Hawks, along with numerous Common Ravens.



Heading north along the chain of lakes to Upper Grand Coulee, we stopped in
Steamboat Rock State Park and added Hooded and Red-breasted Mergansers. Many
Mule Deer grazing the state park lawns were probably the most memorable
sighting here. A Canyon Wren called "zeet.zeet" from the towering basalt
cliffs. Across the bay, we admired the colorful granites of the Okanogan
Highlands terrane that pokes through the basalts here, revealing our
position very close to the margin of the Columbia Basin.



>From here we headed south on the high plateau east of the Upper Grand
Coulee, hoping to spot some "northern" birds on the snowy wheatlands. Snowy
it was, but also enveloped in dense fog, our only inclement weather of the
day. Only on the descent towards Almira did we break out of the fog. Several
stops here revealed Rough-legged and Red-tailed Hawks hunting the
wheatfields, and a few small flocks of Horned Larks.



Our final stop of the day was at Brooks Lake (east of Soap Lake), usual
staging grounds for thousands of geese in the fall. The show was either over
or the geese were someplace else as we scoped the lake near dusk. We spotted
only a few hundred each of Canada Geese, Northern Pintails, and Mallards.,
and a few Green-winged Teal. We did spot our first (surprisingly) Common
Merganser, bringing our total waterfowl to 2 species for the day.



Andy Stepniewski

Wapato WA

Windypointandy at dishmail.net