-----Original Message-----
From: baconmf at mail.com
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:48 pm
Subject: okanagan highlands birds feb.16



hi tweeters-my husband + i did a short trip to the ok. highlands after skiing in the methow for the w/end--there weren't many birds in the methow but we saw 1 courting pair of AMERICAN DIPPERS in the snow beside early winters creek. on the way down from loup loup pass on hiway 20 , we saw a large flock of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS, we saw many BALD EAGLES -a friend from the area claims they eat the placentas from the new born calves...-reason so many are around the okanagan area in late winter.---from tonasket, we headed up to havillah--no birds at the highlands snopark at 1:30 p.m.---several AMERICAN KESTRELS on the way up--- we did a quick loop + saw 2 CLARK'S NUTCRACKERS , 6 -8 MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES + ~ 20 WHITE -WINGED CROSSBILLS in the cone-laden engellman's spruce on hungry hollow rd. n. of sitzmark ski area--on nealey rd. we saw 1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK + near feeders several GREY-CROWNED ROSY FINCHES + AMERICAN GOLDFINCH.--we went back to the highlands snopark area at about 3 p.m.--it was very foggy ,so sort of like dusk...--we spent a long time at the snowpark end + saw 1 RAVEN + heard a couple of toots ? PYGMY OWL?---after about 1 hour ,we headed out to the entrance---at thefirst cattle guard,1/4 ,mile from the road 3230 start, my husband saw a GREAT GRAY OWL in a 15 foot pine tree right beside his side of the car! we watched it for 1/2 hour moving from small tree top to top looking for prey. it was always right beside the road + very tame-----i was able to get a few decent pics . very tame--we felt so lucky b/c we have been there several times in the past-w/ no sightings--other birds we saw were=HORNED LARKS + BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES---good luck + good birding , maxine reid + mike bacon , tulalip bay , wa. mail to : baconmf at mail.com