Russ Koppendrayer, Anne Kahle and I met Tom Mansfield at the
Walla Walla River mouth on Friday. No
rare shorebirds as Mike Denny had mentioned the water level was rising earlier
in the week, therefore little mud to feed and rest on. We checked the surrounding places including
Dodd Rd. and the ponds below the feedlot.
We checked on mp 6 east of Starbuck and found quite a bit of water and
lots of vegetation with only Killdeer. At Hastings Hill Rd. along the Snake River we
had a Common Tern (a Garfield County
first) being chased by a gull. The
Common Tern took off flying upstream and we tried to relocate it, but could
not. Back to where we had first seen the
tern we found shorebirds, which included: 1-Semipalmated
Plover, 1 Least Sandpiper, 1-Long-billed Dowitcher, and several Western
Sandpipers. Shorebirds being tough
in Garfield County we headed over to Lambi Creek Rec. Area where we had 3-Baird?s Sandpipers. They took off east to the base of Ilia Dunes
where we re-found them with Western
Sandpipers and 20 American Avocets.
Walking along the sandy beach another Semipalmated Plover flew by.


Swallow?s Park south of the boat launching area had 1-Long-billed Dowitcher and 1-Solitary
Sandpiper. Just south of Anatone we
had 3-Turkey Vultures. The end of the day we drove up Asotin Creek
to Lickfork Creek and had Common
Nighthawks and Common Poorwills, but no Blue Jay that had been seen the week before.


Saturday morning we woke up to a Brown Creeper calling at the Big Springs Campground. Sunset Point had lots of passerines moving
through which included: Dusky and Pacific-slope
Flycatchers, Cassin?s Vireo, Nashville, Townsend?s, and MacGillivray?s Warblers.
At a old burn were 3 Williamson?s Sapsuckers.
Olive-sided Flycatchers and Red Crossbills were all over. Heading east on FR 43 we heard a Pine Grosbeak, Hammond?s Flycatcher, and
Gray Jays. Just entering into Asotin
County was a Townsend?s Solitaire
and Russ spotted a Northern Goshawk streaking
through the trees. We found 5 Dusky Grouse in 3 locations all
between Wenatchee Guard Station and 4.6 miles going east on FR 4304. Retracing our steps and heading towards
Diamond Peak we had a beautiful (Slate-colored)
Fox Sparrow and a Calliope
Hummingbird.


In Columbia County at Last Resort a female Black-chinned Hummingbird visited the
feeder behind the store. At Watson Lake
were 3 Solitary Sandpipers. We tried to find Matt Bartels White-breasted Nuthatch near Midway
Campground, but couldn?t. Here the three
of us parted ways with Tom. We were
heading to Twin Buttes Trailhead. Just
passed Godman Springs Campground we spotted a Northern Goshawk and Red-tailed
Hawk quarreling over territories.
The Goshawk headed off only
to be harassed and dive-bombed by an American
Kestrel. While this was happening a Golden Eagle moved into the Red-tailed
Hawks area. We then had a Cooper?s Hawk and Merlin shoot by. Like there was warm air-currents on this
ridge and they all wanted the territory for themselves. The following morning Twin Buttes Rd.
(FR-300) produced a drumming American
Three-toed Woodpecker and gave
us some good looks. The woods seemed
very quiet as we birded our way down to Dayton.
It seemed odd no thrushes, were around giving their call notes. They must have moved south already. The Blue Mts. are always fun to bird, but
can be challenging.







Ken
Knittle

Vancouver WA
98665 mailto:washingtonbirder.com
Washington Birder online



http://www.wabirder.com/