Hi Tweeters,
Today we finished our third day birding in eastern Washington mostly in the rain. Out in the rain just south of Molson we stopped at a lake I don't remember seeing before (there's been that much rain, I guess). Notable in this pond were all three Washington state teal, plus Wilson's Phalarope. We also found a Pygmy Owl in a clump of small trees on that same road. We found Black Tern in Fields Lake just east of there (off of Oroville Chesaw Road). Despairing of finding a dry place to eat lunch, we drove to Curlew Lake State Park (Ferry County) and went to the picnic area. It was still raining, but not too hard, so we pulled out our lunch things. At that point Bill noted that there were some Bonaparte's Gulls in non-breeding plumage on the floats at the edge of the swimming beach. Seattle Audbon's Birdweb says these birds are rare in eastern WA, so I mention them here. I certainly don't remember seeing Bonaparte's Gulls in eastern WA many times (if at all) before.
After the rainy lunch we headed across 5500 foot Sherman Pass. At about 4800 feet we encountered heavy snow. By the time we reached the summit, we were driving in about 2-3 inches of compact snow and ice! As we inched our way down the east side of the pass, we saw the snow plow truck rushing up! Hope this weather doesn't persist too much longer over here or it will be a wet WOS meeting.

Charlotte Byers, Seattle