Hi Tweets,

Barbara and I spent Monday and Tuesday, May 9 and 10 in southwestern
Washington. On the way to Skamania County, we stopped briefly in Lewis
County visiting Galvin and Goodrich Roads near Centralia. On Galvin Rd the
most interesting spot was a pond just before the Chehalis River where we
sorted through a flock of peeps containing about 30 LEAST SANDPIPERS and 2
WESTERN SANDPIPERS. On Goodrich Rd we located a SOLITARY SANDPIPER in a
meadow pond just past the bridge and before the right angle turn.

At the Woodland Bottoms in Cowlitz County we found a pair each of WOOD DUCKS
and BLUE-WINGED TEAL at a pond on Whalen Rd near the intersection with
Kuhnis Rd. We passed a flock of 30 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE in a farm
field on the south side of Caples Rd. At the Columbia River access at the
end of Caples Rd we found a female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, a GREATER SCAUP,
four WESTERN GREBES, and a dozen RING-BILLED GULLS floating downstream. In
the shrubs at the big house to the left were ORANGE-CROWNED and
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, and an AMERICAN KESTREL in a small tree. Across the
road to the right a WARBLING VIREO popped up and flew a perch further from
the Kestrel, and we also saw a WESTERN TANAGER pair and a RUBY-CROWNED
KINGLET in a large cottonwood nearby.

At a pond on Dike Rd we spotted 20 CASPIAN TERNS and several BONAPARTE'S
GULLS. But our timing was off -- we left too early to see the MARBLED
GODWITS reported that same afternoon!

Our first stop in Skamania County was the St. Cloud Ranch where we saw that
the warbler migration was well underway: in the flowering fruit trees we
found ORANGE-CROWNED, NASHVILLE, YELLOW-RUMPED and WILSON'S. During the
balance of our trip we saw more of them plus YELLOW, BLACK-THROATED GRAY,
TOWNSEND'S, and COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. At Beacon Rock State Park we found
SPOTTED SANDPIPER at the boat launch, an AMERICAN DIPPER in the nearby
creek, WESTERN TANAGER and CASSIN'S VIREO at the picnic area, and HAIRY
WOODPECKER, PACIFIC WREN, and our only flycatcher of the trip (a silent
empidonax we couldn't get close to) at the campground.

On May 10 we started the day by walking around in Underwood, along Cooper
Ave from the cemetery to Circle Drive including most of the side streets on
the east side of Cooper Ave. We didn't find the Wild Turkeys at home, but
did find two dozen species of standard residential area birds, including
HERMIT THRUSH, MOURNING DOVE, and BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. Then we worked our
way westward, mostly along Cook-Underwood Rd with a few stops on side roads.
On Kollock Knapp Rd we found four CHIPPING SPARROWS in the orchard at the
Gorge Crest Vineyard, a few hundred yards further on the downhill side of
the road two TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRES were pouncing on insects from their
perches on fenceposts. Back on SR 14 we found our F.O.Y. BULLOCK'S ORIOLE,
at the Home Valley Waterfront Park along with more warblers.

Altogether we saw 87 species in generally pleasant weather with high temps
in the low 60s on Tuesday. Thanks to the Tweets who posted reports that
helped us plan our trip!

Good birding,

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.webster AT comcast.net
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