Hello All,
During the 17th of 50 point counts conducted for the Omak Creek
Breeding Bird Survey yesterday (3 June 2012), Ryan Shaw and I found a
female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The bird foraged at eye level for a
minute or so, giving us excellent views before it flew off and we had
to rush off to the next point! This bird has no red at all in the
throat/chin area, and a definite snowy white nape.

I have no idea whether this bird was still a migrant in the area, or
if it could be breeding with one of the many Red-naped Sapsuckers in
the area, but it might be worth a try for anyone passing through the
area already. It was along Highway 155 between Omak and Nespelem, at a
small dirt track intersection (on the west side of the highway) at the
following coordinates:

48.293518, -119.13678

This was just one of 91 species recorded along the 24.5 mile route on
a very nice morning, breaking our previous record of 90 species. Of
1069 individuals, Chipping Sparrow was most numerous (64 birds), and
Audubon's Warbler was seen at the most sites (32). There were 11
species that I had never encountered on this route on the 4 other
times I've run it: Great Horned Owl, Common Poorwill, Northern
Shoveler, Pied-billed Grebe, Black-billed Magpie, Belted Kingfisher,
Vaux's Swift, California Quail, Savannah Sparrow, Green-winged Teal,
and of course the sapsucker which is the 9th woodpecker species for
the route. All this information has also been entered into eBird.

Cheers,
Charlie Wright
Puyallup, Washington
cwright770 at gmail.com