Subject: [Tweeters] Toppenish area Raptor Route-23 January
Date: Jan 23 20:19:06 2010
From: Andy Stepniewski - steppie at nwinfo.net


TOPPENISH WEST TO TECUMSEH ROAD RAPTOR ROUTE

23 JANUARY 2010

Yakkers,

Thoughts of spotting the Gyrfalcon found near Toppenish by Tom Mansfield a
few days ago got us out searching on a beautiful day. We thoroughly checked
all the fields around Larue Road (Tom found the gyr 3 power poles west of
US-97 on Larue Road) south of Toppenish, then south to the south end of
Robbins Road. A field here had 15 Ring-necked Pheasants, so a buffet just
waiting for the gyr. No luck on our target so we headed east of US-97 and
followed Toppenish Creek at the north base of Toppenish Ridge. Nearly 1000
geese were grazing fields not a mile east of the highway, most Canadas but
also a few Cackling and one WHITE-FRONTED and one SNOW GOOSE.

We headed back to US-97 and did the Lower Yakima Valley Raptor route as last
Sunday except we started on Marion Drain Road from the south end of Robbins
Road, then headed west on Marion Drain Road to Tecumseh Road, then south to
Pumphouse Road, then east back to Old Goldendale Road where we revisited
Robbins and Larue Roads, again checking for the Gyrfalcon.

We owled at dusk on Marion Drain 1/2 mile west of Lateral C. Richard Repp
was already there, so we teamed up and spotted at least three Short-eared
Owls and heard several Great Horned Owls. Near dark, several Barn Owls flew
high overhead, apparently from their roost site someplace else.

The hot spot of the day was again the large area of fields from 1/4 to 1/2
mile west of Lateral C on both sides of Marion Drain. From a single vantage
for an hour around Noon and again for 30 minutes at 5 pm we had:

Northern Harrier - 12
Bald Eagle - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 15
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 3
Prairie Falcon - 1
Barn Owl - 2
Short-eared Owl - 3
Great Horned Owl - 2

A Harlan's Red-tail (dark morph) was again on Marion Drain just west of
Lateral B.

In Toppenish at 4 pm we again tried for the adult Peregrine on the various
water towers. No luck. We again poked around Toppenish residential districts
for an hour hoping for a Merlin, again with no luck.

In all today, here was our raptor tally on this route:



Bald Eagle - 4
Northern Harrier - 65
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 119
Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk - 1

Rough-legged Hawk - 5
American Kestrel - 42
Prairie Falcon - 3
Barn Owl - 2
Great Horned Owl - 2
Short-eared Owl - 3

Last week we found seven Northern Shrike on this route, this trip we found
none. Kind of odd!

Waterfowl numbers are way up from a week ago. There is much more open water
than last Sunday. Waterfowl habitat seems everywhere but lots of hunting has
most geese and ducks pretty wary and concentrated in the few spots where
there seems to be no hunting.

Andy and Ellen Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net