Tweets,
Relatively new to county birding, David and I made a rather inefficient swath through EWA Fri-Tue, covering Chelan, Douglas Co (frozen lakes), Spokane Co (more frozen lakes and terrific winds), Whitman Co (so gorgeous, and great to be back in Cougar Country after many years) with a few hours in Clarkston before returning home Tues. We had an interesting drive from birdy WaWaWai Co Pk to Clarkston on Mon. There were sparse numbers, but nice a species selection of waterfowl on the Snake R. in Whitman Co. and we found that almost all of them swam slowly over to the Garfield side while we stood and watched. We weren't intending to bird Garfield, but picked up 7 winter birds that started out in Whitman but flew (wigeons) or swam on over to Garfield! This was a real bonus and it was nice to pick up some good birds in one of the more difficult counties in WA.--and we couldn't see a road on the Garfield side. EWA birders undoubtedly use this technique for birding in Garfield, but we felt we had stumbled onto something fabulous!

The "higher code" birds we saw were a Red-necked Grebe (swimming in "odd-couple" fashion with a Western Grebe) around MP 21/22. Started out in Whitman (code 4), ended up in Garfield (code 5), slowly, but surely. Same with Hooded Mergansers (code 3), 6 together, and a Common Loon (code 2 in Whitman, north of Nisqually John Landing, but code 3 in Garfield.) And not that they are rare, but it was a real kick to get Chukar on either side of the river, calling loudly on both sides.

Of possible interest to EWA county listers, we had a Merlin (code 3) and a pair of Golden-crowned Sparrows (code 4) in Albion at a private home near Front and B. We had a great time in all kinds of weather and picked up several winter birds in each county, passing 100 in Chelan and getting to 99 (no Buffleheads!) in Spokane.
Penny Koyama, Bothell
plkoyama at comcast.net