Tweets,
Spent an enjoyable day birding Vantage and the Columbia River today. It was a fairly mellow day until I pulled off to scan a flock of scaup and redheads just north of Sentinel Bluffs, Grant Co. I was hoping for maybe a tufted duck, when a RED-CRESTED POCHARD appeared in my scope. Since the bird is virtually unknown as a vagrant anywhere even close to Washington, I suspected the bird to be an escapee. However, since the bird was in the Columbia river, floating in a large raft with redheads and scaup and nowhere close to any potential waterfowl keepers, my heart did race and the thought of a potential vagrant entered my mind. I called a couple of people and kept watching the bird and taking photos. Heart and adrenaline fully deployed, the bird about 5 minutes later decided to dabble briefly and showed a green band around its left leg, fully confirming its escapee status. I did put a couple of photos on my flicker page of the bird. http://www.flickr.com/photos/52299853 at N08/ Regardless of its status, it was still a very interesting bird to see and I have to wonder where this bird came from as I wouldn't think its a commonly kept species in captivity.

Other notables today were:

Sage Sparrow-6 males Vantage Hwy-First of the year
Mountain Chickadee-3 at Wanapum St. Park campground area-feeding in conifers near bathroom, unusual location
Northern Saw-whet Owl-1 Wanapum St. Park
Pacific Loon-2 birds; 1 in waters directly below Wanapum Dam and a second bird just north of the railroad bridge at Sentinel Gap.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA