Birded the lower grand coulee today from Soap Lake to Sun Lakes St. Park in Grant Co. Also hit Ginkgo overlook in Vantage briefly en-route. Was hoping for unusual species like scoters, Sabine's gull, terns and sharp-tailed sandpiper. Found none of those hoped for groups, however did manage to find several nice highlights:

Ginkgo Overlook, Vantage:
Dusky Flycatcher-1

Soap Lake-East Beach:
Pectoral Sandpiper-16 (was hoping for a sharp-tailed sandpiper with this many pecs)
Baird's Sandpiper-14
Long-billed dowitcher-2
Black-bellied Plover-1
Semi-palmated plover-1

Lake Lenore-flock of 36 Sandhill Cranes soaring above lake

Alkali Lake-1 Great Egret

Blue Lake-Common Loon-18

Sun Lakes St. Park-nice mix of early fall and late fall migrants including
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW-1 adult tan-striped
Large numbers of juncos (40+) mixed in with chipping sparrows (4) and white-crowned sparrows
Orange-crowned and Townsend's warbler mixed in with the many yellow-rumpeds
many ruby-crowned kinglets, plus one flock of golden-crowned kinglet
red-breasted nuthatch-10+
varied thrush-1

A nice day to be out.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA