I spent today birding Skamania County with Tom Mansfield and Ken Knittle as Tom worked on his county list. Our first edition to his list came shortly after they picked me up in the morning when we found Slender-billed WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH on Marble Road only about a half of a mile into Skamania County. We stopped along Highway 14 at Cape Horn and within minutes of playing it's call a PEREGRINE FALCON cruised overhead for Tom's county lifer #2. At the Franz Lake NWR overlook there were at least seven noisy TRUMPETER SWANS right along the lake edge below us. We had picked this bird up here last year so though rare in the county it was not an addition to his list. While I was watching these squabbling swans Tom spotted a skinny white bird on the far shore, a GREAT EGRET for #3. Near the restroom on Highway 14 at Beacon Rock State Park, a CANYON WREN responded from only a few yards away to a played call (#4).
We drove through the town of North Bonneville finding a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, a nice county bird but not new for his list. Here both Tom and Ken saw a WILSON'S SNIPE flyover, a bird that Tom had seen in county before but new for Ken. I did not get on this bird in time which would have been a county lifer for me. Bonneville Dam had a WESTERN MEADOWLARK and a few gulls but no additions to the list. Rock Creek and the pond on Ryan-Allen Road produced nothing new and the mouth of the Wind River while fairly birdy added no new birds. There were small flocks of ducks on the Columbia River all the way to the Spring Creek Fish Hatchery at the Klickitat County line but there was nothing other than the usual species including many COMMON and BARROW'S GOLDENEYE. We drove down the road leading to Spring Creek Hatchery and found no new birds until we reached the gate and started to make a u-turn when Ken spotted a female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER (#5) next to shore. We drove up to Underwood and followed the road back through Willard to Highway 14 without adding any birds to the list. In Underwood we did have a small flock of CALIFORNIA QUAIL at a feeder along Cooper Road.
Running low on daylight we headed back West checking spots we had passed over on the way upstream including the lake area north of Bonneville Dam without adding anything. We decide to check the open fields along Marble Road for species such as Northern Harrier and Short-eared or Barn Owls in the fading light. When we got back to my house we played the call of a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL to see if we could elicit a response from my resident birds. The owl only gave one call note and then flew across our deck and fluttered against the dining room window for #6. Tom and Ken then headed back out in hopes of finding a Barn Owl for Tom's 150th Skamania County bird.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA


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