Happy mother's day!





We took a trip over to the Wenas area yesterday.? The weather was sunny, rainy, hail - you name it.? With threatening black clouds we made the trip up to the campground looking for white-headed woodpeckers.? We looked around but failed to find them.? But we did find some nice birds on the ride in and out.?



We started out looking to see if the owl nest on Reecer Creek Rd still had owls in it - nope.? It looks like mom and the babies are gone.? We took Hungry Junct Rd back to Ellensburg and saw a couple of Wilson's snipe sitting on fence posts just behind the Eburg airport.



On the Wenas road (gravel rd) we saw several western bluebirds at various nest boxes.



We had a pair of ruffled grouse cross the road about half way over. Near the observatory we saw a Townsend's solitaire.?



Near the entrance gate to the Wenas area we saw?a pair of Lewis's woodpeckers on the up hill side of the road.? I got a couple of really bad pictures but good enough for an ID.? Be a little careful if you go up toward the campground because the beavers have been busy.? There is water across the road that you will have to cross for a while - at least until things dry out.



On the way down toward Selah we came across a Swainson's hawk sitting on?a telephone pole.? It didn't mind me walking right up to the telephone pole to allow it's picture to be taken.? It even turned around so i could get a better picture!? It never did fly off.



In the Yakima Canyon we saw one to two American white pelicans and a couple of bald eagles.? On the Ellensburg entrance to the canyon there are a couple of osprey nests that allow great photos.? I get the impression that they are used to having people around.? I stayed on the road and took pictures as the male sat in a tree cleaning his feathers and the female sitting on the nest.? Neither paid me any attention!



The woodpecker and the solitaire are both lifers for me!!



Have a good mother's day and happy birding!



DLewis

North Bend, WA

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