Subject: [Tweeters] eastern Washington birding
Date: Feb 22 15:35:32 2011
From: Marv Breece - mbreece at earthlink.net


I birded from Sunday 2/13 to Saturday 2/19 in eastern Washington.

My goals were to locate Merlin in Pend Oreille county, visit the Okanogan Highlands & the Waterville Plateau and to do a bit of county birding as well. I found birding to be quite slow on the plateau and the highlands.

Here are a few highlights:

Rough-legged Hawk - 25 or more birds of assorted morphs on the Waterville Plateau

Golden Eagle - 1 adult along Lower Crab Creek Rd (LCCR) (Grant County) & 1 1st year along Bridgeport Hill Road (Douglas County)

Merlin - 7 birds in 4 counties, including a pair in Newport (Pend Oreille County)

Greater Sage-Grouse - 11 birds along C NE between 16th and 17th near Mansfield (Douglas County); a rare sighting away a lek

Eurasian Collared-Dove - widespread including 2 in Tonasket (Okanogan County) and several at Medical Lake (Spokane County)

Bohemian Waxwing - 3 at Bridgeport Bar and 150 at Central Ferry Canyon (Douglas County)

American Dipper - 1 at Latah Creek, Spokane

Western Bluebird - 2 males and 1 female, Conconully Road & Happy Hill Rd (Okanogan County)

Mountain Bluebird - 1 male at Moses Coulee, south of Hwy 2 (Douglas County)

Loggerhead Shrike - 1 adult along LCCR (Grant County)

Northern Shrike - 12 birds for the trip

Clark's Nutcracker - several in Republic (Ferry County) & 4 in Conconully (Okanogan Co)

American Tree Sparrow - for several years I have tried without success to find this species on B street near Lower Crab Creek Rd; reported several times in past by Randy Hill; I was pleased to find 2 birds this time; thanks, Randy

Sage Sparrow - several singing birds, Moses Coulee

Tricolored Blackbird - quite a few birds on wires at RR tracks at top of hill between Othello and Para Ponds (Adams County)

White-tailed Jackrabbit - my first sighting of this mammal came along Heritage St (aka "L") in Douglas County as it crossed in front of me at dusk

Marv Breece
Seattle, WA
mbreece at earthlink.net