Bright blue sky, a slight breeze, puffy white clouds early on, birdy
on & off, splendid surprises here and there and good company, combined
to, once again, provide friend and birder, Ron Benshalom and me with
all we could have asked for (well, almost...) The apparent failure of
the Prairie Falcon nest at the cliffs outside of Cle Elum, on Old
Hiway 10 was sad, but the progress of both the nesting Common Raven
family and the Cliff Swallow colony(ies) there, made for pretty good
substitutes to view and marvel at.

During the 12 hours we were in the county (with a short time in Yakima
Co.), we saw at least 62 species, up from the 53 we had seen on the
previous Thursday and, as usual, some the same and some different - it
keeps us coming back for more! The places we stopped for birding,
with some of the highlight birds at each, included:

I-90 on the way over - 5 Turkey Vulture near Exit 32, 7 TV near exit 34

"Suncadia" resort near Roslyn - Barrow's Goldeneye on a pond

a city Park on Second St. in Cle Elum - dozens of Evening Grosbeak, a
Cassin's Finch and a nesting Rough-winged Swallow, several Vaux' Swift

Cle Elum Ponds (Northern Pacific) - Chipping Sparrow, Lewis'
Woodpecker, Western Bluebird, Bullock's Oriole, Western Tanager,
Western Wood Pewee, Common Goldeneye, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Anna's
Hummingbird, Brown-headed Cowbird (sure, we'll put that in the
highlights!), Rad-tailed Hawk pair (one was Light morph), Brown
Creeper, Great Blue Heron, non-biting ants (crawled up Ron's legs
before he realized he was standing on an anthill - no harm done !)

Swauk Crk. bridge - Dipper dipping (2)

Hiway 10 Cliffs - besides the birds described above, a few Turkey
Vulture cruised the cliffs

along roads to & through Yakima Canyon - Cliff Swallow, Northern
Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, American Kestrel, Common Merganser, Bald
Eagle (one on nest and another downriver from it - along Yakima
River), Golden Eagle (flying up over some cliffs), Black-billed
Magpie, Northern Harrier Western Kingbird (only birds we saw feeding
on the incredible swarms of flies along both Yakima R. and Umtanum
Crk. - this seemed strange... - nary a warbler or small flycatcher
there), no Prairie Falcon or nest spotted here - I found I had
forgotten just where I had seen them last year...

along lower Umtanum Creek Trail (just a short way up) - Lazuli
Bunting, 2 snakes (one was a garter snake and the other slithered away
before we could ID it, but we heard no rattling!) - saw no Prairie
Falcon there, either, but did see a kestrel

Umptanum Rd, heading up out of Ellensburg (between 7 & 9:30 p.m.) -
California Quail, Western Meadowlark, Mt. Bluebird, Brewer's Sparrow
(heard), Vesper Sparrow (got a photo), Blacktailed Deer grazing (2),
Short-eared Owl (possibly 3 pair - on both sides of road out in the
grasses and sage, about 1 1/2 mi or so up from where the pavement
ends), Great Horned Owl (2-4 on and flying between utility poles along
the paved road as we had just come off the dirt road on our way back
toward Ellensburg - we got a few artsy photos)

--------------

By the time we got back into town, hungry as can be, the only spot we
found open after 10 p.m. was McDonalds, so we filled ourselves with
food(?) from there and have 2 recommendations: 1. don't ever get a
caramel latte; 2. do go for the $1 side salad and the $1 hot-fudge
sundae! The special chicken sandwich that Ron ordered was tasty
enough that he had two!

We kept ourselves awake on much of the return drive, by listening to,
and imitating the bird calls and songs on the CD that comes with the
new Stokes field guide, which is excellent, by the way - lots of
photos of each bird - however, it is a ponderous tome (weightwise) and
best left in your car library.

I spent the next day, following Oprah's lead, of which I was not yet
aware, and stayed in pj's all day (as she did today after her final
show!) Hey, it was raining, for Pete's sake!

Wonder what the east side will bring next week?

Good everything to you all !


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net