A group from Tacoma Audubon spent MLK weekend in north-central washington.
21 of us had generally good weather with rain saturday night from 7-11pm. We found
74 species. This is the third year we have visited the grange rd. feeders, although this
year we found no rosy finches. The owner, real friendly, said they are there at first light,
around 7:30am, after that spotty.
As a westsider it is always interesting to see the additional polymorphic buteos that visit
the eastside. We bumped into Meredith in Central Ferry Cyn. After relating our birds,
she stated yea, we get a lot of different looking birds. She was more amped about
the cedar waxwings. Thanks for all your help Meredith. We had 2 black morph rough-
legs on the waterville plateau, a Harlan's near Bridgeport Hill on 172, a black-morph
red-tail near Tonasket, and a beautiful rufous morph in Central Ferry Cyn. The red
morph was stripping a bird of it's feathers when an adult Bald Eagle flew directly in from
the river, I would guess at least a half mile, rousting the red-tail off it's kill.
One other interaction that grabbed our attention was an adult Goshawk struggling to
fly. It landed in a field below us, almost immediately a Golden Eagle flew in forcing it
to drop the prey. It turned out to be a rock pigeon, which directly flew away. The
Gos left and the eagle sat down. Watching the entire proceeding was a coyote.
The coyote walked to the eagle, where it was greeted with threat postures. The
false mantling apparently intrigued the coyote as they interacted for a couple of
minutes. These glimpses of interactions always add to the allure of this trip.

Day 1
snow bunting, 600, 2 flocks of about 300 along sr2 near atkins lake, scattered groups
along 172 east of Mansfield.
prairie falcon, dry fall
partridge, 1 east of Mansfield
snowy owl, 15th & G
euro dove, Mansfield, ~20
saw-whet owl, 2 bsp

Day 2
chukar, 4 fancher rd.
g. eagle 2 fancher rd.
pygmy owl, 5, 3 below havillah, 1 hungry hollow, a point blank Mary Ann ck.
pine grosbeak, ~20 above china-poland, Mary Ann ck.
tree sp., 3 same spot
partridge, 5 same spot, 15 hungry hollow
dipped on great gray and g.c. rosy finch

Day 3
goshawk, 2 north end of Cameron Lk.
all 3 nuthatches, 1 white-headed, ~20 pygmys
white-headed woodpecker, 1
prairie falcon, 1 so. end of Cameron lk.
gryfalcon, 1 so. end of Cameron lk.
cedar waxwing, 15 Brewster
bohemian waxwing, 2 groups 30 and 100, Central Ferry Cyn.

Ken Brown
Port Orchard, Wa.