Hi All,

As promised to many readers and those who provided valuable information and assistance, here is a brief highlight trip report from my trip from Victoria through Washington and Oregon last month.

Our trip started on July 23rd with a ferry and drive to Princeton, BC, where we briefly birded through Old Hedley Rd, turning up one of my targets right away, White-throated Swift.? We also found a Golden Eagle, as well as a Dusky Flycatcher (another target).? Late evening brought us to Osoyoos, where we found Grasshopper Sparrow on Nighthawk Rd, then a twilight trip to Richter Pass turned up a number of calling Common Poorwills, but no visual.

The next morning we located Yellow-breasted Chat (target) at Rd 22, just north of Osoyoos, before heading cross-border into Oroville.? We decided to take FR39 to Winthrop as the scenic alternative (and scenic it was), and located a number of other targets, including our only Boreal Chickadee of the trip (Long Swamp), Cassin's Finch, Rock Wren, and Three-toed Woodpecker (Roger Lake).? FR39 also held good numbers of Pine Siskin, Evening Grosbeak, Lazuli Bunting, etc.? From Winthrop we headed to Moses Lake, visiting Loup Loup Campsite, where we got Williamson's Sapsucker (target), though other than that, the heat of the day kept the birds down, and the visible birds panting.? Nothing of note at Cameron Lake. We missed a few planned stops due to the length of our FR39 detour, which proved to be a couple of hours longer than we had expected.

July 25th we left Moses Lake at 5:30am for Huntzinger Rd, which held very few birds.? From there we headed west on Old Vantage Highway, where we found in short order Sage Thrasher, Sage Sparrow, Rock Wren, Loggerhead Shrike (5 individuals), and a hillside with a covey of 30+ Chukar (all target birds), plus Prairie Falcon.? At this point we decided to head to Walla Walla, instead of circling around through Ellensburg and Yakima.? Along the way we stopped in Pasco to pick up Burrowing Owl (an easy find).? Tom's yard in Dixe produced Rufous, Calliope, and my targetted Black-chinned Hummingbird.? A quick drive up to the top of Biscuit Ridge and search for Green-tailed Towhee and Great Gray Owl turned up neither, though we heard them both call.? We crossed into Oregon, and headed for Spring Creek, where again we hoped to find Great Gray.? No luck, but we did find WIld Turkey and Dusky Grouse, roosted in trees 15 ft apart.

The drive from Pendleton to Malheur the next day was quiet bird-wise, and we spent two days at Malheur, highlights of which were three terns, all the grebes except Clarke's, Canyon Wren (target), Trumpeter Swan, Snowy and Great Egret, and Bobolink.? After three tries on South Coyote Butte for Black-throated Sparrow, we finally located one (target).

July 28th was time to head north again, and we found Ferruginous Hawk on the drive from Burns to Sisters, as well as Golden Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Swainson's Hawk, and Osprey.? Sisters itself turned up the large resident flock of Pinyon Jay (the easiest target of the trip, it took 6 seconds to find them after parking at our first spot).? We also located Gray Flycatcher, another target, near Sisters, with many Western Wood-Pewee.?

The remainder of the trip was fairly non-birding oriented (to keep my wife happy), but we did find Tufted Puffin at Cannon Beach (a target we have missed before).? Ecola State Park was beautiful, and though we heard Wrentit, we failed to locate it.?

The last day of birding was the July 31st Westport Pelagic, which turned up a number of targets including Skua, Long-tailed Jaeger, Pomarine Jaeger, Arctic Tern, Black-footed Albatross, and Leach's Storm-Petrel, as well as the surprise SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS, which raised everyone's pulse on the boat.

All in all, we turned up 184 species in 6 and a bit days of birding, locating 25 lifers and absolutely enjoying every minute.? We definitely plan to return to all of the areas we visited (perhaps earlier in the season!), though maybe in hindsight the numebr of areas we visited was a bit too ambitious, as we had many misses, including Green-tailed Towhee, Wrentit, Mountain Quail, etc.? Many more birds to bring us back!

A big thank you to everyone who provided advice and information!

Jeremy Kimm
Victoria, BC