Subject: [Tweeters] Sage-Grouse and Ferruginous Hawk Photos
Date: Apr 15 13:29:49 2012
From: Randy Bjorklund - randimal at comcast.net


Hi Everyone,

I took my first eastside tip of the year this weekend, specifically for two
lifers, Greater Sage-Grouse and Ferruginous Hawk. My route took me up
through Chelan County, overnight Friday at Pateros, and then Leahy, Wilson
Creek, Ephrata, Scooteny, Pasco, and Richland. For counties, that's
Kittitas, Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Adams (briefly), Lincoln, and Benton and I
was able to pick up a lot of county birds.



Chelan County was not very birdy on the way up. The only good picture I
managed was a herd of Bighorn Sheep in Swakane Canyon.



I arrived at Leahy at dawn Saturday and the GREATER SAGE-GROUSE were waiting
for me. My best guess is 18 males and maybe 1 female. The lighting was
beautiful and though they were far away, the photos turned out OK.



The Wilson Creek FERRUGINOUS HAWK was waiting on the cliff when I got there
and flew back and forth over the pond often so photos weren't too hard.
Woohoo, found both lifers.



I went through Ephrata next because of a Burrowing Owl report. I actually
found them by accident when I startled a pair while trying to photograph a
marmot. One BURROWNING OWL flew up onto a cement truck to pose for distant
photos.



Scooteny had a pretty good variety of ducks and miscellaneous birds. Both
WESTERN MEADOWLARK and BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE posed for photos.



Stops in Pasco and Richland were fairly slow since it was the middle of the
day but I picked up some county birds. Twin Bridges road outside of
Richland had few species but good ones. AMERICAN AVOCETS were foraging in a
pond and a field had hundreds of SANDHILL CRANES.



By afternoon, the wind REALLY picked up so I didn't see much through Hanford
on the way home. I did see three LONG-BILLED CURLEW in the fields around
Hanford.



Photos are located here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/102009338713990315115/PicturesForSharing#
<http://picasaweb.google.com/102009338713990315115/PicturesForSharing>



Randy Bjorklund

Federal Way, WA