Today I spent 4 hours at the east end of Riffe Lake. The water levels are finally down enough, and there is lots of mud and ponds. While walking the dead end road out to the lakes edge, I flushed 2 VESPER SPARROWS from the low grassy area along the edge of the road. There were also lots of SAVANNAH SPARROWS in the area. Shorebirds were tough to find today, but after spending lots of time checking the muddy areas, I found 1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, 1 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, 9 WILSON'S SNIPE, and 1 PECTORAL SANDPIPER. Still present is the GREAT EGRET. While walking out to the lake from the wildlife access area (.6 miles after the bridge), there were 6 AMERICAN PIPITS. A list of birds seen today are as follows.

Canada Goose
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 12
Osprey 1
Killdeer 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Long-billed Dowitcher 1
Wilson's Snipe 9
California Gull
Belted Kingfisher
Steller's Jay
Common Raven
American Pipit 6
Common Yellowthroat
Vesper Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow

Dave Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia, WA