We took a day trip from home in Electric City to Mansfield and Bridgeport looking for the elusive Mansfield Gyrfalcon. No luck on the gyr, but we did manage an 8 raptor day plus a lifer.

1. Rough-legged Hawk - everywhere on Highway 174, 172, and 17. Stopped counting at fifteen individuals.
2. Red-tailed Hawk - odd for Douglas County at this time of year, but there they were, just west of Mansfield on 172.
3. Prairie Falcon - on an irrigation circle at Jameson Lake Quarter Horses - the ranch at the end of Jameson Lake Road at the north end of Jameson Lake
4. American Kestrel - Highway 172 east of Mansfield
5. Sharp-shinned Hawk - First and Hamilton streets in Mansfield
6. Cooper's Hawk - Bridgeport State Park spillway overlook at Chief Joseph Dam (Okanogan County)
7. Bald Eagle - Pearl Hill Road, just below Chief Joseph Dam (Douglas County)
8. Golden Eagle - Sitting on Yeager Rock on Highway 172 east of Mansfield. Highlight of the trip - chased off Yeager Rock by a pair of ravens, flew east to another rock pile near milepost 27, then chased off that rock by a pair of Rough-legs. It finally disappeared to the southeast, 4:45 PM.

The lifer may have been the easiest bird of the trip. After driving the Bridgeport Hill Road 15 or 20 times in the last 10 years looking for Sharp-tailed Grouse, I finally caught one in plain sight in the top of a river birch 50 feet from the road in broad daylight (2:25 PM). This was on the east side of Bridgeport Hill Road, just south of milepost 7 on the Wells Wildlife Area. It even held still long enough for pictures until oncoming traffic flushed it downhill toward the creek.

Thirty-six species all together and a fun day. Now if I can just figure out how to cancel out the Gyrfalcon's cloaking device...

- Roy A. Myers, Electric City, WA