I spent the long weekend birding mostly in Lincoln & Adams Counties
and enjoying clear weather the entire weekend.

Saturday Feb 19
En route, I stopped briefly at Sentinal Bluffs in Grant County. The
wind was howling, so not much was around, but a FOX SPARROW popped up
with a group of White-crowned Sparrows as a nice surprise.

At Sprague Lake, I started out on the Adams Co side, and found good numbers of:
Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser,Greater & Lesser Scaup, Redhead &
Canvasback.
A NORTHERN SHRIKE was down the road a bit further south/west, at the
intersection w/ Wellsandt.

Viewing Sprague Lake from the Lincoln Co fishing access was a bit
more difficult as there was a very disturbed woman screaming and
threatening any car that came near the area.....
I did end up seeing most of the same species observed on the Adams
end of the lake earlier , with a few dabblers mixed in.

I spent the rest of Saturday cruising some back roads in Lincoln Co.,
not turning up too much.

Sunday, Feb 20, all in Lincoln Co:
Began w/ a SNOWY OWL, near where previously reported, just outside
Davenport at the corner of Omans & Oehlwein.

Next, I took Green Canyon Rd down to Mill Canyon:
WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER - near the mouth of the canyon.
PACIFIC WREN - 1
GOLDEN EAGLE - chased off a juvie Bald Eagle to take over the
feasting duties on a carcass down on a sandbar.


Along Indian Creek Rd., I came across a flock of 100+ BOHEMIAN
WAXWINGS along the side of the road.
At Hawk Creek Campground, an AMERICAN DIPPER was working the area
below the falls. A pair of HOODED MERGANSER were also a pleasant find
here.

Seven Bays Marina was pretty quiet, with one Herring Gull and couple
Mallards. Some of the neighborhood feeders were hosting loads of
American Goldfinch & House Finch, and one scrubby area turned out my
only SPOTTED TOWHEE of the weekend.

Driving Coffeepot Road, I finally saw a Rough-legged Hawk for the
weekend. Then, at the fishing access at Coffeepot Lake, I found the
lake frozen but one of the small trees held a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL -
judging from the wash, it hasn't moved from that spot for a while....

A PRAIRIE FALCON along SR 28 heading east out of Odessa was my last
bird of the day.

Monday, Feb 21
I began the day with a swing through Medical Lake in Spokane County,
where I finally ticked Eurasian Collared-Dove for Spokane County [34
down, 5 counties to go....]

Benefitting from Tim O'Brien's report yesterday, I stopped at the
Fishtrap exit along I-90 [Lincoln County] to see the flock of TUNDRA
SWANS there. On the Sprague Highway between Fishtrap & Sprague, a
NORTHERN SHRIKE was another fun find.

Just east of Sprague, en route to the lake, a PRAIRIE FALCON was
hanging out roadside [as previously reported, I think]. I spent a lot
of time scanning from both the Lincoln & Adams Co access to Sprague
Lake -- mostly, the birds were the same as on Saturday -- Additions
included Adams County RUDDY DUCK [1], TUNDRA SWANS [2], and HOODED
MERGANSER [2].
From one roadside pull-off scanning the lake from across a cattle
lot, I heard a Black-capped Chickadee calling from the lake edge
trees -[100+yds away]- I tried hard to get a view of it, but had no
luck. The close scanning did turn up a tucked in GREAT HORNED OWL
though.
I also dipped on the Am.Tree Sparrows that have been in the area recently.

Down in Washtucna, I lucked out on a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL, hanging
out in the olive trees above Bassett Park.

To wind up the day before driving home, I stopped in Wanapum State
Park in Kittitas County and was able to relocate the previously
reported N.SAW-WHET OWL, making it a 3-Saw-whet weekend!

All in all, a good three days of birding,

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA