Hi Tweeters:
I'm mainly writing this to calm fears about all the rains in E WA with the WOS conference coming up on Friday at Wenatchee. We had a great day on Sunday, June 6 in hard rain when 4 of us headed to Yakima Canyon. The rain was bad, the weather was cool, there was a breeze at times, and there were mushrooms growing in E WA on the grassy parking strips. We all had left our winter layers at home, thinking we could escape the rains of W WA. Unfortunately it rained hard from the time I left Des Moines, met people in Auburn and N Bend, and we all headed over the pass and all the way down to the top of Yakima Canyon, south of Ellensburg. Then the rains became moderate w/ a breeze in the canyon. We saw people packing up their camp tents at Untanum Rest Area. We saw 2 & then 6 *Amer. White Pelicans* in the Yakima River above the dam.
At about 9:15 we stopped down near the bottom of the canyon at one of the pullouts near the Kittitas-Yakima Cnty. line. We were hoping to see Golden Eagles at a nest, but were unsuccessful. But we had 2 adult *Golden Eagles* flying over the ridge on our side of the river, 2 *Amer. Kestrel* males flying, and could hear *Lazuli Buntings*. We saw 2 *Western Kingbirds* chasing each other, and one *Cedar Waxwing*. I briefly heard one *Chukar* call across the river. Down the river a little ways we looked across and saw several *Calif. Big-horned Sheep* with 4 or 5 young sheep climbing around the upper parts of the talus slopes.
After becoming chilled and soaked, we took flight ourselves down and out of the canyon, stopping at a mini-mart gas station on hwy 82, exit 26. Here we got to see quite a few folks from the Yakima Firing Center in their light-colored camo uniforms. The camo is in a pattern of little squares which is apparently harder to see than large patches of colors. It was raining pretty hard, and we had to get under an overhang at the minimart to talk and drink hot drinks.
Having warmed up we went back up into the canyon on hwy 821, and stopped at the first very-large pullout. This is described in the Birder's Guide to Washington, map on pg 297, and description pg. 306. We had an occasional *White-throated Swift* fly by, but it was cool and rainy and there were not many insects flying. We heard raptor begging calls. Grace looked up the cliffs above us and spotted some young *Prairie Falcons*. We eventually saw 4 juv Prairie Falcons and one adult. Apparently these juvs are near fledging, probably this week sometime. A few had some downy feather, and were doing some wing flapping. If you want more details about the site, please email me off-list.
We headed back up the canyon. It was so cool and rainy, we didn't stop at Umtanum Creek to go across the footbridge to another possible Prairie Falcon spot.
But it was up and out of the canyon at the top and in the Kittitas Valley that we had some amazing sights as the rains let up. It was after 1pm. The clouds were low, and it was cool. We turned right onto Woodhouse Rd which is just past a wrecking yard, and had *BLACK SWIFTS, COMMON NIGHTHAWKS, and a few VAUX'S SWIFT's* flying near us often at eye level. This is a phenomenom not to be missed! There are a number of ponds along there, and we pulled into a gravel road on the right by an Osprey stand w/ Osprey adult. The short gravel road leads to a fishing pond. Here on Woodhouse, and later over at the pond at Thrall Road & Canyon Road, we saw many nighthawks and swifts down low. I estimated that we saw approx. 30 *Black Swifts* total, a few *Vaux's Swifts*, and maybe 20 *Common NIghthawks*. Several views were at eye level. Wow! We continued to see Common Nighthawks when near the river below Ellensburg, and north of Ellensburg along hwy 10.
Northwest of Ellensburg we left I-90 at the Thorp exit, and just beyond the town of Thorp saw 2 *Bank Swallows*.
Then on hwy 10, past (NW) of the jct w/ Thorp Rd we stopped at the very-wide pullout. Now we had more *Prairie Falcons* on the cliff. There were 5 juvs and one adult. These too will fledge soon, look very healthy, and sometimes call. Like at the Yakima Canyon site there was no whitewash and the adult was silent. For more details about the site, email me off list. There were also 2 Turkey Vultures eating carrion, a soaring juv "Bald Eagle", our only BAEA of the trip, and a soaring Red-tailed Hawk. As at most stops along the river, we could hear a Lazuli Bunting singing.
Even though the temps are cool and there has been plenty of rain in E WA (even my sister in TriCities is griping), go over there and bird even if it's raining. It was great on Sunday. Even the little birds were singing in the rain. They are used to it. Take all your layers.
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines
carol.schulz50 at gmail.com