Subject: [Tweeters] Birdathon - Eastern WA Highlights, incl. a Pacific Loon
Date: May 14 17:49:10 2012
From: Marcus Roening - Marcus.D.Roening at gsk.com


Hi Tweets,

Heather and I once again led a Tahoma Audubon Birdathon trip from the Tide flats in Tacoma to Moses Lake this past weekend. Of course, the weather was nothing short of spectacular and the always pleasant surprise - minimal wind on the eastside of the Cascades. The total for our group of 8 birders this year was 130 species - a good day and a number of life birds for the participants.

Here are a few highlights from our adventure:

KITTITAS COUNTY
HYAK - 50 Rufous Hummingbirds at the hummingbird house (lower road on the way to the sewage treatment plant) and 12 BARROW'S GOLDENEYES in the STP

STAMPEDE PASS - An absolute chorus of HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHERS. There are almost always 2 or 3 singing, but this year it was closer to 8 in one spot - quite amazing. There was also what on first glance appeared to be RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, but there was more patterning on the face than just the malar stripe, so will put it down as a HYBRID. Previous trips we have only seen Red-naped Sapsuckers in this same area.

SOUTH CLE ELUM PONDS - lots of NASHVILLE WARBLERS, Yellow Warbler, McGillivray's Warbler, & Western Bluebirds

SWAUK CEMETARY & PRAIRIE - WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Chipping Sparrows, Mountain Chickadee & Vesper Sparrows on the Buffalo fence lines

OLD VANTAGE HWY, POWER STATION & QUILOMENE WRA - singing BREWER'S SPARROWS (perhaps my all time favorite sparrow song), SAGE SPARROW, SAGE THRASHER and drop dead views of the electric blue MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS.

VANTAGE OVERLOOK - A PACIFIC LOON was working up river flirting with the county line. The loon was of medium size, the head did not have the blocky look of a Common Loon, nor did it have a notably large bill. The bird was still in non-breeding plumage with white visible on the lower front half of head, the neck and onto the breast. Head color and back color appeared very dark, almost black and unpatterned. Bill was always held horizontal, never tilted up. (5/12/12 at 5:30 pm).

Nice views (straight down) of breeding HORNED GREBES, a surprise GREATER SCAUP, a SAY'S PHOEBE nesting on the visitor center & Western Tanagers in the trees.

HUNTZINGER ROAD OVERLOOK (first big rock pile on the east that overlooks an island) - A flock of Caspian Terns and mixed in 6 FORSTER'S TERNS.

GRANT COUNTYS

FRENCHMEN'S COULEE - a must-see stop with awesome basalt columns singing ROCK WRENS and the ever amazing WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS knifing by at eye level.

PONDS EAST OF GEORGE - SWAINSON'S HAWK, BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS (sharp eyes spotted the first one in the large willow and the more we looked the more we found), more Caspian & FORSTER'S TERNS and a new bird for my Birdathon route - EURASIAN COLLARED -DOVES.

DODSON ROAD - to depressing. This was the highlight of the trip many years ago and now I counted only a handful of ducks and they were all REDHEADS. At Birder's Corner where Dodson Road meets Frenchman Hills Road the diversity was slightly better and we were able to hear both SORA and VIRGINIAS RAIL. Okay, there was one crowd pleaser - a trio of LONG-BILLED CURLEW about 2 miles before Frenchman Hills Road. The curlews seem to prefer the newly plowed fields, or at least they are a heck of a lot easier to spot in them. One year we spotted a new family and the chicks are absolutely hilarious to watch. Imagine big puffball chicks on long stilt legs and a half grown bill chasing mom. It was quite an engaging sight.

ADAMS COUNTY: SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2012 - back to the west side via Moses Lake (Hwy 17) to Othello and Hwy 26 west.

Drove the fields east of Hwy 17 looking for BURROWING OWLS and found one, literally standing on the side of the road. This was 1.25 miles east on Foley Road. Would not expect to find it there again, but they certainly are in the area and the group was pretty jazzed to see an owl at 20' on the other side of the road.

PARA PONDS - NW of Othello: Because we were already on Foley road, we took it all the way west towards Othello thinking to hook up with the road down to the Para Ponds. You are now forewarned that it is a dead end, but it looks down on the Para Ponds plus much larger marsh complex on private property NE of the ponds. In these ponds were 7 AMERICAN WHITE-PELICANS. Best birds of the Para Ponds were BLUE-WINGED & CINNAMON TEAL.

GRANT COUNTY: 'County Line Ponds on Hwy 26' - Now I know I'm in Eastern WA. The alkaline ponds are magnets for the showy shorebirds. We counted 14 BLACK-NECKED STILTS, 16 AMERICAN AVOCETS, 1 Long-billed Dowitcher, winnowing Wilson's Snipe and 50! Wilson's Phalaropes making their tidy circles. A great way to end a weekend of birding.

Good Birding,

Marcus Roening
Tacoma WA