Hi fellow Tweeters,

Just returned from three days touring the Okanogan area with my friend Tommy
visiting from the Arabian peninsula for a week.
Wednesday we started our journey with a quick early morning stop in Me-Kwa
Mooks Park in West Seattle where we found the resident WESTERN SCREECH-OWL.
Heading east across the pass we made the first stop in the fields about
three miles east of Mansfield along Hwy 172. There we got good views of an
adult grey GYRFALCON. Nothing much in Mansfield other than 20 or so EURASIAN
COLLARED DOVES and a couple of hundred CALIFORNIA QAILS. Unbenownst to us
there was a goshawk stalking the quails as reported by Mike Marsh and his
party of California birders. Just as darkness fell, we arrived in the
Okanogan Highlands about 2 miles east of the entrance to the Highland Sno
Park we found a GREAT GRAY OWL along the road, perched on a telephone pole.
We spent the night in the Omak Best Western - a very high quality
accommodation for a reasonable price.

Thursday we were out a dawn looking for the great grey again, but without
luck. At the Sno Park we found the resident AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER
and one or two NORTHERN PYGMY OWLS. Later we went to the Highland Meadows
aka the Neely Feeders on Neely Road. Here we dipped on 10 or so rosy
finches reported by other, but just past the area towards Chesaw, we bumped
into another photogenic NORTHERN PYGMY OWL. A couple of GRAY JAYS and
CLARCK'S NUTCRACKERS were also around. From there we headed to Chesaw and
further along Bolster Road where we eventually found a flock of COMMON
REDPOLLS. In the flock we picked out one HOARY REDPOLL *exilipes*. Heading
back to the Neely feeders we bumped into two RUFFED GROUSES at the Chesaw
Rd/Neely Rd intersection. Still no rosy finches... Eventually we ended up
back near the Sno Park to try for the great gray owl again for a possible
photo, but this time all we saw was a GREAT HORNED OWL.

Friday morning we were present at the Neely feeders at 0745, right when the
ROSY FINCHES were supposed to be there. This time two birds were indeed on
the feeder and there was much joy! (Tommy has been wanting to see this bird
for over 20 years.) From there we headed up along the Mary Ann Creek Rd
looking for pine grosbeak unsuccesfully. Further west on Chesaw Rd
towards Oroville
we found a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, Tommy's fifth lifer. Feeling that we were
done with the eastern part of the Okanogan highlands, we headed across the
Riverside Cutoff towards Conconully. We tried hard for sharp-tailed grouses
here and later on Bridgeport and Dyer Rd, but we did not find this bird. On
Conconully we found another SOLITAIRE, RED-BRESTED & WHITE-BREASTED
NUTHATCHES - no pine grossbeak here either for us. We ended the the days
searching the Waterville plateau searching for snowy owls, but no luck on
this species either. In conclusion, both agree we had a great time in the
Okanogan area.

For some very accurate position for the birds reported see our Flickr
web-sites where all our photos are geo-tagged.

Knut's photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22333182 at N04/
Tommy's photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandmanindubai/

--
Knut Hansen
Renton
knut-hansen at comcast.net
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