Spent two days in Grant County with a wonderful group of people. As others have posted, it was in the upper 90's each day. Not what I had planned when I scheduled a mid September trip! All participants were very good natured about working in the heat to find passerines and shorebirds. Mid afternoon stops for cold treats at Coulee City on Saturday and Potholes on Sunday helped to make things a little better going. In general much of the passerines were slow for the two days, the heat not helping much. Guy already posted some of the Lind Coulee and North Potholes stuff when my group interacted with him. Migrant passerine numbers were generally low. Most species eventually seen, but none in large numbers except for yellow-rumped warbler and white-crowned sparrow. I'll summarize quickly the totals. For the weekend, 101 species with 16 species of shorebird.

Saturday:
Family of 4 Burrowing Owl on Hwy. 17 between Moses Lake and Othello got things on a nice start
Semi-palmated plover-1 at Soap Lake; 6 at Steamboat Rock south bay
Numerous Baird's sandpiper and Pectoral Sandpiper and a smattering of Semi-palmated sandpipers at Soap Lake and Banks Lake
1 Bonaparte's Gull-south Banks Lake
1 juvenile Black Merlin Sun Lakes State Park
1 Lincoln Sparrow-Banks Lake
3 Wilson's Phalarope Coulee City STP
Family group of 4 Lazuli Bunting remain at Summer Falls Park.
Also found at Summer Falls park were two Townsend's Solitaire and 2 Sage Thrasher and 4 dark-eyed junco

Sunday:
Sentinel Bluffs very slow
Migraine Lake-Columbia NWR; 38 red-necked phalarope and 2 Bonaparte's gull
Potholes SP-small group of Sanderling with distant Common and Forester's tern; refer to Mike Denny's trip list for better lake totals
Lind Coulee-in addition to mention juvenile Peregrine Falcon; 14 Pectoral Sandpiper and 1 Stilt Sandpiper
Perch Pt-1 Stilt Sandpiper
North Potholes-same species as mentioned by Guy McWethy with the nice comparison looks of yellowlegs and Solitary Sandpiper being highlights. Large flock of sparrows driving in at water puddle with at least 6 lark sparrows mixed in with white-crowned sparrow

Stopped along Huntzinger Road going home and had 12 red-necked grebe just above Wanapum Dam and 1 Greater Yellowlegs from the overlook above the Horse Farm slough.

A good (but hot weekend).

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA