Hi all,

My brother Dan and I enjoyed very nice conditions on Friday and Saturday
for some birding in eastern Washington, mostly in the Columbia Basin. On
Friday midday it reached 60 degrees midday in Mattawa, Grant County!
Saturday was a bit cooler but it was the second day of birding with no
rain - yes.

Friday highlights at Desert Aire, Grant County included a huge blackbird
flock containing roughly 1,500 YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS and 1,200
BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS. I was unaware that both species wintered in such
large numbers. Interesting!? We had an immature HARRIS'S SPARROW near a
house with a feeder at the corner of Thunderbird Way and Hildy Way.
There was also a very large flock of Aythya (8,000+-) on the Grant
County side of the island that is north of Priest Rapids Dam. Most all
were Greater Scaup but there were also a fair number of Redhead and
Canvasback mixed in. No luck on a hoped-for Tufted Duck but there was a
male RED-BREASTED MERGANSER near the flock. A few stops at various other
spots nearby along the Columbia River produced a few things like both
species of kinglets, some Red-breasted nuthatches, and a few Varied
Thrushes.

On Saturday we spent the first part of the day down by the Columbia
River south of Wenatchee starting at Crescent Bar, Grant County.
Highlights here included a PACIFIC WREN, a CHIPPING SPARROW!!! (looks to
be very few winter records), and a SAY'S PHOEBE that appears to be
over-wintering in this area. Later in the morning we moved north into
Douglas County and birded Rock Island and Rock Island Dam in Douglas
County. Most interesting bird here was a hybrid MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE X
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE near a pull-off just north of the dam entrance road.

We then traveled up Palisades Road and Moses Coulee (Prairie Falcon best
bird on this route) and onward up on the Waterville Plateau for our
remaining daylight hours. Not much to report on the snow-covered plateau
but we enjoyed three snow Bunting mixed with some Horned Larks along the
road as we headed toward Bridgeport Hill Road/Foster Creek. Finally,
after several previous unsuccessful attempts over the years, we lucked
upon some SHARP-TAILED GROUSE feeding up in some water birches. They
were at a spot further down hill than where I assume they normally are
encountered (the place with the side road heading at an angle down
hill). They did not stay long but we were able to count 18 of them as
they flew over the hillside - seems like a "healthy" count here??

We then started home. Just before dark, we encountered 7 TRUMPETER SWANS
along the near shore of the Columbia River at milepost 231, on 97
Douglas County.

We had a great time.

Cheers and good birding,
Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com