Hello all,
I spent the weekend with my family over near the town of Plain, just
southeast of Lake Wenatchee to do some hiking and enjoy the warmer
side of the state.

The bird of the weekend was undoubtedly the Evening Grosbeak. Small
flocks found the gravel driveway where we were staying quite
hospitable and were actually quite unafraid of humans, perching on a
railing only a few feet away from me at one point.

Flycatchers included at least Pacific Slope, Olive-Sided, and Say's
Phoebe as well as a few more whose ID's went unconfirmed.

I got life looks at both Lazuli Buntings and Nashville Warblers.
Yellow, Yellow-Rumped, and Townsend's warblers were also seen.

Although I spent many evenings last week standing in my backyard
looking at the sky and listening intently, I was unable to find any
Common Nighthawks in Western Washington last week so I was especially
thrilled to get plenty of Nighthawk action over the weekend. Several
birds were calling over the area we were staying while we were owling
on Friday night (though I didn't see or hear any on Saturday evening)
and I was happily surprised to see and hear several birds hunting in
the middle of the day at the Little Wenatchee River Gorge north of
Lake Wenatchee on Saturday.

I've been trying to fill in some of the holes in my owl life list this
year (rather unsuccessfully, actually) and made my first attempt at
owling while on the trip. The first night we had one Barred Owl that
responded to recordings. The second night was even more successful and
we had a Great Horned Owl hunting from electrical wires along the road
in "downtown" Plain as well as a pair of Barred Owls that came to
recordings at a second location. Unfortunately no amount of hunting or
calling could turn up any of the smaller owl species that should be
found in the area, although the Flamulated recording did seem to bring
in one very curious male Mule Deer.

The final highlight came right right before we left when a trio of
three Wild Turkey's crossed a path ten yards in front of us.

Additionally, although there were many bird songs I was unable to ID,
I managed to capture one that really bothered me with my phone. I
imagine it is something I should be able to deduce, but I've scoured
my recordings for anything I could think of as a possibility without
any luck so I've added a link for your input:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=90AC6EF8DB2F4D7A!547

Song and call was coming from near the top of some conifers on a road
near the Wenatchee River Gorge Trail. The recording starts with a call
and then there is a song produced by another bird, possibly of the
same species.

Josh Adams
Lynnwood, WA
xjoshx at gmail.com