Hi Tweeters!

I did a three day trip to the Okanogan for one last winter trip. A rather mediocre trip for numbers and diversity of birds.

Unfortunately, we were hampered with dense fog for an entire day at all locations on Friday and heavy winds on Sunday. This made birding quite challenging. Birding was sloow at times but the quality was good. The warming trend in weather and rains over the past week thawed many of the roads. Cameron Lake Rd was pretty much bare except for a mile stretch. It's been an odd winter!

We had to work hard to find our target birds. We dipped on the Snowy Owl but found two Great Grays and finally had some redpolls!

Saw only two Rough-legged hawk and less than 5 Northern Shrikes for entire trip. No signs of any crossbills, Pine Siskins, or Evening Grosbeaks.


**************SPECIES SEEN**************

GYRFALCON- one bird along the Hwy 172 towards Hertiage Rd near Mansfield, wA

PRAIRIE FALCON-(2 birds) on the Waterville Plateau near Manfield and Lamoine.

NORTHERN GOSHAWK-(2 adults) one on Davies Rd and Hungry Hollow Rd

GREAT GRAY OWL-(2 birds) one close to dusk on Mary Ann Creek Rd and other at dusk along Dry Gulch Ext Rd

NORTHERN PYGMY OWL (10 birds) 3 on Mary Ann Creek, 2 Davies Rd, 1 on Barthoff Rd, 2 on Bolster Rd, 1 on Byers Rd, and 1 on conconully Rd

NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL-no birdsin stake out trees--only remains of a freshly, killed house finch and some white wash below one tree

WESTERN SCREECH OWL-(2 birds) at the Yakima Arboretum Park

Great Horned Owl-(5 birds) 4 birds in Okanogan Highlands and one roosting on Conconully Rd during day

SHORT-EARED OWL-one bird along Scotch Creek Wildlife Area

GRAY PATRIDGE-(12 birds) decent covey along Davies Rd

SHARP TAILED GROUSE-(12 birds plus) along Mary Ann Creek Rd. None were found near Happy Hill Rd or Wells Wildlife area.

RUFFED GROUSE-(12 birds), 6 on Mary Ann Creek Rd and 6 on Bolster Rd

BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS-small flock of 100 birds Byers Rd (only flock for the trip)

AMERICAN 3-TOED WOODPECKER-one bird along Davies Rd

PILEATED WOODPECKER-One pair in Sno-Park near Havillah

AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS-(5 birds) three birds on Cameron Lake Rd, two along Happy Hill Rd

PINE GROSBEAKS-(60 plus birds); 20-25 on Mary Ann Creek Rd, two flocks of 30 birds on Davies, and 10 Bartoff Rd

GRAY-CROWNED ROSYFINCHES-(10 birds) along Nealey Rd, none at staked out feeders

LAPLAND LONGSPUR-(3 birds) 2 birds on Havillah Rd mixed with 200 Horned Larks, 1 bird along Cameron Lake Rd with 50 Horned Larks and a dozen snow buntings Snow buntings

SNOW BUNTINGS-(350 plus birds) 150 plus birds along Cameron Lake Rd, 20 near Conconully Rd, and 200 birds along Nealey Rd

COMMON REDPOLLS-(50 birds) along Torodo Creek Rd near

Good birding,

Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon)

www.ktbirding.com