On Tuesday (12/12/11), Jon Isacoff and I birded southern Okanogan & northern Douglas Counties. The weather was mostly sunny with temps ranging from 17 to 36 degrees.?

One our of primary targets was finding a Snowy Owl in Okanogan County. As a result, we drove the entire length of Cameron Lake Road twice. Overall, birding was slow on the Timentwa Plateau. Raptor numbers were quite low, but we did see a larger than usual Prairie Falcon which was a county lifer for both of us. On the plateau, there were only a couple of ROUGH-LEGGED and RED-TAILED HAWKs, one SNOW BUNTING, a flock of 25 AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES, a few HORNED LARKs, around a dozen NORTHERN SHRIKEs, ?BALD EAGLE, and scattered NORTHERN RAVENs. There was no joy on the Snowy Owl there, but we were compensated by a nice sub-adult GOLDEN EAGLE.

Later, we dipped on the Riverside Cut-off Road Chukar, ?but we picked up Cooper's Hawk and AMERICAN KESTREL on Conconully Road. On our drive to Pateros, we were rather surprised to find that the Okanogan River was mostly iced over and that the mouth of the Methow River frozen as well.?

From the commanding overlook of the Columbia River on Starr Road, we viewed COMMON LOON, WESTERN GREBE, HORNED GREBE, COMMON GOLDENEYE, AMERICAN WIGEON, BUFFLEHEAD, CANVASBACK, MALLARD, and GREEN-WINGED TEAL. While an adult GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL was loafing on the Douglas County side of the river, a first year GLAUCOUS WINGED GULL graced the Okanogan County side.

As dusk approached, we tried Central Ferry Canyon, and found PYGMY & RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHes, and a vociferous (and inexplicable agitated) HAIRY WOODPECKER. Fortunately, some of best birds of the day came in quick succession.?

On the Waterville Plateau (south of Dyer Hill), we enjoyed a pair of SHORT-EARED OWLs patrolling the sagebrush. West of Mansfield, we saw GREAT HORNED OWL on power pole. ? Several miles east of Mansfield, we found an adult SNOWY OWL on the barren ground near the junction of ?Highway 172 and Road H. ?


As a grande finale for the trip, we were driving through the ice fog on Highway 2 in Lincoln County (east of Telford Rest Area), and flushed a BARN OWL off the shoulder of the road. ?While the birding averaged slow through most of the day, tallying four species of owls in the evening was wonderful way to wrap up our trip.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA