The deer carcass is in fact still there. Unfortunately it's become frozen
and iced over so maybe no longer accessible for feeding? The ROSS'S GULL
was at the north end of Palmer Lake today between about 1000-1100. For the
first 20 minutes when I first laid eyes on it, it was flying back and
forth, and with the exception of one time only when it came in toward the road
along the north shore, the rest of the time it coursed back and forth over
the far NW corner, so a tad far but obviously a Ross's Gull. Once it sat
down along the east side shore of that little peninsula way over there, it
looked like a lump of slush which if you hadn't actually seen it land there,
it likely would have been overlooked. There were still a few birders
scattered around plus one very friendly local who's taken a keen interest in
the gull when I just passed through again at 1300hrs but it sounded like no
one had seen it for awhile but it apparently hadn't been back to the deer
carcass at all.

Leaving Loomis, I headed south to Conconully. Yeow! Dead, dead, dead!
Don't bother! ALL lakes including Conconully are 100% frozen solid. ~800
Mallards in a field east of Conconully seemed a bit excessive however. Why
Palmer Lake isn't frozen is rather surprising but I'm sure it's days, maybe
even hours now, are numbered. Seemed to me that there was more ice along
the southeast side of the Lake at 1300hrs than there was earlier in the
morning and the north end was starting to turn slushy in spots. All in all,
the lake and the gull reminds me of one memorable October when I was working
out of Barrow AK some 20 years ago just as the Chukchi (Arctic Ocean) was
freezing up, slushy seawater and swirling swarms of Ross's Gulls migrating
along the shoreline, and virtually no other birds whatsoever save for some
seemingly ridiculously tardy-hardy Red Phalaropes darting around on the
beach and picking around in the slush. When freeze-up happens, it happens
really fast and it's as awesome as it is humbling!

Returned up 97 from Omak to Tonasket, then made a quick dash up to the
Highlands for a long long, LONG shot hope for Great Gray Owl before sunset.
No owl, but did find a magnificent adult gray morph GYRFALCON 5.2mi out of
Tonasket on the Tonasket-Havillah Road. I've settled in and expect to
remain in the area now to roam the Highlands for the next 2 or 3 days. I have
a hunch it's going to be kind of slow from the few reports from others so
far, but we'll see. Depends on the weather too. Sounds like maybe a bit
or snow or freezing rain in the Valley but snow in the Highlands, so we'll
go high assuming it's manageable.

Richard Rowlett
Red Apple, Tonaskat, WA