We spent a long weekend exploring the Yakima Valley up to White Pass.
The highlight of the trip was Yakima Valley Audubon Society's Migratory
Bird Day at the Toppenish Wildlife Refuge, where we were not only
treated to seeing captive injured owls and raptors up close and
personal, but were able to take a hay ride out into a part of the refuge
that is normally not open to the public. YVAS members were very
hospitable and helped us novice birders spot and identify east side
birds. Our own personal count for the weekend follows:

Red tailed hawks (at the refuge, someone had set up a scope on a nest,
and we were able to see the chicks!)
Bald eagles
Turkey vulture
American crows
European starlings
Black billed magpies
Common ravens
Double crested cormorants
Red winged blackbirds (everywhere!)
Kestrel
Canada geese (lots of goslings)
Northern flickers
Pacific slope flycatcher
American robins
Northern harriers
Brewer's blackbirds
Ospreys (near White Pass we saw an osprey harassing a bald eagle)
Great blue herons
Lazuli bunting
Golden crowned sparrow
Western kingbirds
Tree swallows
Yellow-headed blackbirds
Bullock's orioles
Killdeers
Downy woodpeckers
Cinnamon teals
Marsh wrens
American white pelicans
Virginia rail (in plain sight for a few moments!)
Northern shovelers
Barn swallows
Ring-necked pheasants
American avocets
Black-necked stilts
Gadwalls
Buffleheads
Dowitchers (not sure which)
House sparrows
Black capped chickadee
Least sandpiper
Cowbird
Western tanager
Song sparrow
Black-headed grosbeak
Wood ducks
Bewick's wren
Rock pigeons
Mourning doves
Lewis' woodpeckers (They were all over the Garry oaks at Fort Simcoe,
where we saw a pair mating, and also there were several at Oak Creek)
Yellow warbler
Steller's jays (several at Oak Creek)
California quail
Belted kingfisher
White-headed woodpecker (near Clear Lake close to White Pass)
Yellow rumped warbler
Dark-eyed junco
American dippers (in Oak Creek, where we were fortunate enough to see an
adult locating food in the creek and then feeding a chick)

We also saw two river otters, a rattlesnake and numerous California
ground squirrels.

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