Hi everyone,



Here is the more detailed trip report from the trip that Marv Breece, Mason Flint, Evan Houston and I took last Friday through Sunday. ? I had several people e-mail me off-list after the first post asking for help, and it is difficult to respond to everyone individually.? For those who have not done this trip, several general recommendations should?hold you in good stead:?1.)? This is a fairly large area and the birds can move around a lot - therefore to some degree this is a 'work ethic' area.? Drive around, drive around, and drive some more.? Look, look, look while driving (multiple sets of eyes help) and get out of the car in good habitats and look more thoroughly.? 2.)? There are other birders in the area (there were lots this weekend) and everyone was friendly and willing to exchange info, so take advantage of this most up-to-date info.? 3.)? Get out early (before daylight) and stay out past dusk, especially for owls.? 4.)? GET AND USE A COPY OF HAL OPPERMAN'S BOOK - "Birders Guide to Washington" through ABA and possibly the Seattle Audubon Nature Store, or WOS.? When people who have just come from there get five or six off-list requests for where to go in that area, it's pretty much impossible to respond in detail to individuals, and it is unnecessary with a copy of Opperman's great book.? 5.)? Plan ahead - we kept copies of all relevant Tweeters posts going back almost to the beginning of the year with us as reference.? A DeLorme WA atlas or other detailed state atlas is essential.? 6.)? This is a remote area - go prepared with safety, food and other gear.? 7.)? Many of the best birding roads in the area are not paved, and rarely or never plowed in the winter.? Thus (in my opinion) you are taking an unnecessary risk if you go in a two-wheel drive vehicle.? Although the snow levels are very down this year due to the mild winter and early spring-like weather, there were still?potential ?issues.? The access road to the Highlands Sno-Park was glare ice (nighttime temps were down around 15 degrees), and after the weather warmed up, several roads which had no snow at all were thawed on top, generating a nice, thick and extremely slippery mud layer that was at least as slippery as snow.? Overall this trip was easy as far as roads went - but this is relative to more typical winter conditions there, not to typical driving in populated areas.



Of course, if you really want to see all the specialties in this area, get someone to do a gene splice operation with Khanh Tran, whose knowledge and success rate is amazing.? We met no one else who had found Great Gray Owl, and few who had seen Pine Grosbeak or Sharp-tailed Grouse - of course, Khanh had all of these and more as well.? He is amazing.



Our group trip list was 89 species.? Our primary misses were Pine Grosbeak, Great Gray Owl, Snowy Owl, Sharp-tailed Grouse and Northern Goshawk.? However, other finds and the quality of looks with some great birds more than made up for the misses.? Notable sightings we had (and locations when my notes are complete) follow.



BALD EAGLE - multiple, in both Douglas and Okanogan counties.



AMERICAN KESTREL - multiple, including one having breakfast on a small rodent



HORNED LARK - everywhere, as usual.? One flock in particular had significant numbers of the arctic subspecies (complete lack of yellow coloration).?



NORTHERN HARRIER - Two beautiful adult males seen.



ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK - Common, multiple locations.



LONG-EARED OWL - Hedgerow near Lemoine; very difficult to find - extremely well camo'd.



SNOW BUNTING - Mostly smaller groups of a few birds, but a large flock on Hungry Hollow Road near a stock feeding location.



LAPLAND LONGSPUR - Excellent looks at multiple birds in a flock of larks, along F road between 10th and 11th, where we unsuccessfully looked for a recently-seen Snowy Owl.



AMERICAN TREE SPARROW - Along Heritage Road, near 13th, in small grove of trees.



GREAT HORNED OWL - At least five birds, near Sno-Park (seen and heard) and two along lower end of Central Ferry Canyon Road.



BEWICK'S WREN - This is a quite rare (code 5 bird per Ken Knittle's county lists) east of the mountains.? We had an actively singing male (we suspected, but were unable to confirm, a pair at that location) perched up on a sage plant.? Not the habitat us westsiders expect to see this species.



EARED, HORNED, PIED-BILLED AND WESTERN GREBE - All four of these species in the Columbia on the Douglas County side of the river just upriver from the Brewster bridge, near a highway pulloff.?



LONG-TAILED DUCK - Same location as above - thanks to information posted on Tweeters earlier for this find.



GYRFALCON - This was arguably our major trip highlight , found late afternoon on Friday.? This bird was a beautiful adult gray morph bird that was perched right by the road near the south end of Cameron Lake Road, near the last side road (Greenaway or something similar).? We were able to get long looks (albeit from a distance most of the time) at this gorgeous bird, and took lots of digiscoped pictures.



NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL - Only one (versus at least five last year), and heard only at Sno-Park early a.m.? (Yes, we determined it was not another birder playing a NOPO tooting tape.)



WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS - Past the Sitzmark ski area, just before the intersection with Hungry Hollow Road, feeding in conifers with a heavy cone crop.? Small flock included at least two beautiful males.



RUFFED GROUSE - Right after the Crossbills, after turning right on Hungry Hollow, we had two Ruffed Grouse, one of which posed cooperatively for plenty of photos.



GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH - Nealy Road feeders.



CASSIN'S FINCH - Nealy Road feeders - one female mixed in with House Finches, Rosy-Finches and American Goldfinches.



TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE - Nealy Road, at the top of a conifer.



COMMON REDPOLL - A very large flock (we estimated 400) along Bolster Road north of Chesaw, as previously reported on Tweeters.



GRAY PARTRIDGE - Several kids playing near the main intersection in Chesaw (I know, you're thinking, which of the many intersections in this metropolis is he referring to?) flushed a flock of these birds which we caught out of the corner of our eyes and weren't totally sure of the ID.? The birds landed right by the road just uphill from the intersection, and as we walked on the road toward them, they flushed again with great looks and flew back down to the flat along the creek.



GOLDEN EAGLE - At least five seen on the trip, including a beautiful juvenile that flew over us in Chesaw in great light.



SAGE GROUSE - Sunday morning, we were up very early and at the Leahy Junction lek before daylight.? We counted 25 to 28 males and 4 females on the lek - quite a sight.? These birds were on the south side of the road, and easily seen even with binoculars.? [Soapbox moment - Stay on the road!!? Though not signed, the land is private.? And more importantly, this lek has no doubt been used for hundreds of years and is an extremely important but tenuous?foothold that this endangered species relies heavily on.? Do nothing to disturb the birds as they go through their annual ritual.]



MERLIN - Found feeding on an unidentifiable small bird on the top of a power pole in Bridgeport.? We were treated to this bird making quick work of its breakfast, and going through an apparently happy and self-satisfied little dance while feaking its beak several times after finishing its meal.



PRAIRIE FALCON - On the Bridgeport Bar, near the 'sparrow hedgerow' close to the end of Moe Road, this bird flew to a pole and posed for some time there, then on a tree not too much further away.?



BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS - We finally found a pair of this species in the hedgerow by the orchard along Moe Road on the Bridgeport Bar.



EUROPEAN COLLARED DOVE - A pair found in Mansfield, near the grain elevators.



All in all, it was a very fine trip.? Many thanks to all the helpful posts on Tweeters prior to the trip, and to the very friendly and helpful fellow birders we met during the weekend.?





John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net

www.tubbsphoto.com














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