Saturday Tom Mansfield and I birded Wahkiakum County and a small piece of Pacific County. Beginning at Skamokawa Vista Park we had an Acorn Woodpecker, a county first, -thanks Andrew for the tip.

At Altoona while hoping the American White Pelicans were still around when all of a sudden they were flying by right in front of us coming from up the Columbia river and tucking back along the east shoreline where we couldn't see.

Going north out of Skamokawa we hit some back roads where a flock of all plumages of Red Crossbills were feeding in the large rock logging road. Further up the hill we had a House Wren. We were looking for Marv's Bluebirds which were elsewhere when we arrived.

We had a distant Yellow-breasted Chat on Brooks Slough Rd. west of where Russ and Marv had theirs-this is on the Julia Butler Hansen NWR. Puget Island was pretty quiet with a few Eurasian Collared-Doves.

Sunday we found Skamania County very windy which made birding a real challenge. At Little White Salmon Hatchery we had a Red-eyed Vireo on the protected side of the hill going into the hatchery and 1 Spotted Sandpiper on the paved road. We couldn't locate any Morning Doves so we were planning on stopping by Wilson's feeder. We had just turned onto Belle Center Road and stopped for a Pacific-slope Flycatcher when we started again up the hill there was a Mourning Dove right on the paved road.

Ken Knittle
Vancouver WA 98665
mailto:washingtonbirder at hotmail.com
Washington Birder online
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