Dear Tweeters,
I decided to hike up to Lemah Basin, just off the PCT in Kittitas
County yesterday (3 Sep.) to check out the burn area and waterfalls.
I approached via Cooper and Pete Lakes and the birding was great. On
the trail to Pete Lake, I found one Black-backed Woodpecker, one
American Three-toed Woodpecker, many Type-1 Evening Grosbeaks (audio
recordings), Chestnut-backed Chickadees and other common montane
birds. Along the trail at Pete Lake itself, was a smallish flock of
Type-3 Red Crossbills (audio recordings) as well. Farther up, in the
2009 Lemah burn area I found another American Three-toed Woodpecker.
Overhead, from upper Lemah Valley, down to at least Pete Lake, there
was a constant swarm of Violet-green Swallows, Vaux's Swifts, and
Black Swifts. All three species seemed to form a stratified feeding
flock, with the Black Swifts feeding the highest (sometime
disappearing vertically from sight), the Vaux's Swifts a little lower,
and the Swallows feeding all the way down to the treetops.

As a note, Rich Levad's book about Black Swifts (http://www.aba.org/thecoolestbird.pdf
) suggests that no Black Swift nests have been found in Washington
State. If that's true, given the shear number of Black Swift's I've
seen in that valley, I'd bet a good place to start looking would be
the waterfalls throughout the Lemah Group and along the PCT in that
region!

Cheers,
Walter Szeliga
Ellensburg, WA