Subject: [Tweeters] Hart's Pass and camping at Ballard
Date: Sep 7 20:40:15 2010
From: Neil and Carleen Zimmerman - n3zims at comcast.net
Hello Tweeters,
I and my wife, Carleen, along with friends, Kathy, Arn spent the weekend camping at Ballard. Ballard Campground that is, about 10 miles west of Mazama, WA, which is on the way up to Hart's Pass. Cold and windy most of the time, with snow on Monday. We did get some good raptors at Slate Peak and Hart's Pass. Not many, but a nice selection.
Golden Eagle
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Prairie Falcon
A. Kestrel
Swainson's Hawk
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
We ran into Andy, Ellen, Ken, Teri and Juliette at Meadows Campground on Saturday who teased us with a report of a Hawk Owl being seen a couple of days earlier. Many hours by them and us did not turn up a sighting. They gave us a great tip on White-tailed Ptarmigan on the side of Slate Peak which we checked out on Monday. We found about a dozen birds. Clucking hens and peeping chicks were right at our feet. It was a great experience with some normally hard-to-find birds.
Nothing else out of the ordinary up high. We did have Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Townsend's Solitaire and many Yellow-rumped Warblers.
Down lower at the campground, we had Clark's Nutcrackers and two Red-naped and a Red-breasted Sapsucker. I managed to call in a N Pygmy Owl on Saturday morning. It hung around and called for about an hour. One of the most enjoyable times was watching two adult W Wood-Pewee trying to keep the mouths of three fledglings full. The youngsters were calling with a Pewee-like begging call while the adults would sail out and flycatch, then zoom back and deliver a insect to the waiting trio.
It was a good weekend of birding.
Neil Zimmerman
Brier, WA