I spent another weekend birding in the SE corner -- The busiest part
of fall migration may be past, but a lot is still moving and there
was plenty to see between rain showers.

Saturday - my first stop Saturday morning (Sep 18) was the Hatton
Rest Area (Adams Co), where the American Golden-Plover was still
present. Also had: Pectoral Sandpiper, Baird's Sandpiper, Greater
Yellowlegs & Killdeer there.

Washtucna's Bassett Park still has birds moving through, but the
numbers are way down -- Best birds in a couple hour visit were:
Pacific Wren in the Russian Olives by the parking area;
Varied Thrush on the lawn;
Fox Sparrow on the south end
Common Yellowthroat - several moving through --
all of those were 'new' migrants compared to the previous weekends.
In addition, a couple flycatchers were still hanging out (Western
Wood-pewee, Pac-slope, Say's Phoebe & probable-Gray's), as were a
couple Warbling & Cassin's Vireos, and Wilson's, Yellow,
MacGillivray's and many Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Next up was Columbia County, where ducks & other waterfowl are always
hard to find --this visit, I managed to turn up a good number of
returnees:
Greater White-fronted Goose - one at Tuccanon HMU, perhaps
the same one from a couple weeks back?
Ring-necked Duck - Tuccanon HMU
Common Goldeneye - Tuccannon HMU
Green-winged Teal - south of Starbuck on 261, flooded cow
pasture at about mp 6.5
Gadwall - mp 6.5 field
Ruddy Duck - on Snake River, en route to Little Goose Dam
Pied-billed Grebe - on the pond behind the Lyons Ferry Marina
(accessed through the long culvert/tunnel)

Eurasian Collared-Doves seemed to have moved in a little more solidly
in Pomeroy (Garfield Co) - in a brief snack stop & drive through, I
had 10 in 2 different groups.

Asotin Co:
Great Egret - Swallows Park in Clarkston, hanging on on the
mud-flats & up in the trees
Common & Forster's Terns - a flock of 6 flying the river
between Clarkston & Asotin at dusk. I believe the count was 2
Forster's & 4 Common, but it was not easy to keep track of all the
individuals and 2 of the Common id's were probably a bit more
tentative.


Sunday (Sep 19), beginning in Asotin Co:

Great Horned Owl - Asotin Creek Rd., a pair hooting from the
cliffs at dawn.
Barn Owl - 2 flushed while I searched the olives at Asotin Slough HMU
Eared Grebe - at Alpowa River Mouth, still in breeding plumage

I drove through the downpours to Walla Walla & Benton Co - couldn't
turn up much at the Walla Walla delta, so I headed to Richland &
Bateman Island.
Marbled Godwit - one
Red-necked Phalarope - 10+
American Avocet - 20+ - many in winter plumage - I did not
expect them to still be around.
Greater Yellowlegs - ~3-4
Bonaparte's Gull - 1
Common Tern - 1
Caspian Tern - 2-3 , also a bit later lingerers than I expected.

All in all, a good if brief weekend over on the allegedly dry side.

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA