Today, August 19, Les Carlson and I birded Skamania County, and despite the 35mph winds we came up with 76 species for the day. We did not visit many of our usual spots as we kept running into mixed flocks of warblers, vireos and other birds that were so entertaining that we ran short of time. The first migrant flock we found was on Marble Road and included ORANGE-CROWNED, YELLOW, BLACK-THROATED GRAY and WILSON'S WARBLERS along with about a dozen LAZULI BUNTINGS. Early in the morning we had checked the Schoolhouse Creek wetlands, on the Washougal River, where our best birds were three GREEN HERONS. At Franz Lake we spotted a GREAT EGRET, a scarce bird for this county, There were three early migrant GREEN-WINGED TEAL at Doetsch Pond at Skamania Landing and three WESTERN GREBES on Drano Lake. We hurried up to the 8040 Road, north of Trout Lake with the intent of checking Underwood and other spots bypassed on our way home for Wild Turkeys and other birds. When we got to the 8040 Road we found that there were flocks of warblers, sparrows and other passerines at every stop we made and ended up birding this far eastern side of Skamania County until nearly dark. The first stop that we made here produced a male WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER, after that we attempted to locate a Black-backed Woodpecker that was seen here by Alan Richards earlier this month. The only birds that came to checkout the Black-backed Woodpecker calls we were playing was another WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER.

Wilson Cady