Tweeters,



We spent the daylight hours on the December 24th along the Cameron Lake
Road. A PRAIRIE FALCON perched atop a tall steel pylon was on the first step
above the Okanogan River. Farther up, atop the plateau, we had a first in
our years of birding, not one but two GYRFALCONS from the same vantage! I
first picked out an immature which launched from a fence post west of the
Abel Ranch entrance and then rocketed east to a shallow ravine where it put
up a SHORT-EARED OWL. The owl fled away in direct flight. Ellen then found
an adult gray phase Gyr, seen later in the day by Michael Fleming and Stefan
Schlick. We also found a flock of 10 AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS west from this
spot a mile or so in trees by a frozen marsh. Our list for the day on the
snowy plateau was short, 15 species. We noted only three Snow Buntings,
about 30 Horned Larks, and five Gray Partridges. We saw no Rough-legged
Hawks but did tally four Northern Shrikes. The snowpack is deep for the end
of December according to one rancher we talked with, about two feet.



After a great dinner at Omak's Breadline Caf? with Michael and Stefan, Ellen
and I headed out to Conconully and the Scotch Creek Wildlife Area for some
owling. We heard only one owl, a Northern Saw-whet below the
Omak-Concunully Road west of Happy Hill Road, in riparian woodland along
Scotch Creek.



Christmas morning we birded for a couple hours at the mouth of the Methow
River at Pateros before heading south out of the Okanogan. We had some
interesting sightings: one each of SNOW GOOSE , PACIFIC LOON, EARED GREBE,
and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL. A flock of about 100 BOHEMIAN WAXWING zipped by,
trilling, over town.



We also checked a large duck flock on the lake on the east side of Brewster,
with hundreds each of Greater Scaup, Ring-necked and Ruddy Ducks, along with
a handful of Lesser Scaups, Canvasbacks, and Redheads. We were thinking
Tufted Duck but did not have that kind of luck. This might be a flock to
check through the winter for oddball species.


Andy and Ellen Stepniewski

Wapato WA

steppie at nwinfo.net