Hello Tweeters,

Feeling desperate to avoid rain and do some quality birding in
the waning days of May, we headed to eastern Washington on Thursday, May 24.
That day we birded the NP ponds at Cle Elum, then because of predictions of
inclement weather, we headed directly to Vantage And birded from there east
to George.

We arrived at the NP ponds about 8:30 in the morning, where
birding business was brisk. We saw or heard about 40 birds over the course
of a couple hours. Got a good look at a WHITE-HEADED NUTHATCH, but there
was nothing out of the ordinary at the ponds.

At our next stop, the Interpretive Center at Gingko State Park,
we saw the nesting SAY'S PHOEBE again (we'd visited here on May 7 too) while
we ate lunch then headed down to the river access below. On the way down we
flushed a small flock of CHUKAR. I'm sure these birds are around all the
time, but it's the first time we'd seen them there. We saw a
breeding-plumaged HORNED GREBE again on the Columbia.

We drove down Huntiziger Road as far as the apple orchard and
saw two WHITE PELICANS and one FORSTER'S TERN fishing in the shallows down
river from Wanapum Dam. Shallows were hard to find because the Columbia and
all rivers were high and flowing fast.

Next we went to Silica Road and Frenchman's Coulee where after
some searching we saw the WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS that are usually there.
Here we found another Chukar-surely the first time I've seen Chukars twice
in the same day. This one, a male, was standing his ground at the top of
the ridge and calling all females for a good 15 minutes. We also located
one beautiful male LAZULI BUNTING.

To finish the day we drove up the frontage road to George,
stopping along the way at the various ponds. At the first pond NE of the
Silica Road/I-90 intersection, we found one GREAT EGRET plus BLACK-NECKED
STILT, AVOCET, CINNAMON TEAL, REDHEAD, and other ducks. A nice little gold
mine. Our last stop was the Martha Lake boat access just east of George.
Here we found our first YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD of the day, EASTERN
KINGBIRD, one mostly hidden BLUE-WINGED TEAL and other new-for-the-day
birds. The weather had been spectacular all day-not too hot or windy.

After spending the night in Ellensburg, we headed up Umtanum
Road early. Despite the forecast for even better weather, it was cloudy and
cold, already breezy and threatening rain! We did manage to find BULLOCK'S
ORIOLE, which we'd missed on our May 7 trip, and saw many CASSIN'S VIREOS
throughout the day, but the birds were pretty quiet early on. On the trail
not far down the Umptanum Creek trail, we saw and heard a cooperative DUSKY
FLYCATCHER, the first of several for the day and we glimpsed a CASSIN'S
FINCH.

We were curious to see what Wenas Campground would look like
with Memorial Day approaching. We drove in with an amazing assortment of
large trailers and other recreational vehicles. The end of the CG closest
to the entrance was apparently the high rent district, populated by those
with really large mobile homes, plenty of vehicles for off road travel,
generators, etc. The far end was where the Audubon campout was going to
take place. Very low key tents, and a few small trailers. Lots of
Sanicans, though. Thank you very much!

The weather finally warmed a bit and we spent a few hours here
birding and managed to locate one RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, found a
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER and had a close encounter with two VEERYS. One of
the Audubon campers had a hummingbird feeder out and a BLACK-CHINNED
HUMMINGBIRD was feeding there. We ate lunch in an area away from both sets
of campers and near some cottonwoods and were rewarded with a noisy
interchange between two WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKERS-a bird we do not always
find even at Wenas. As we were driving out of Wenas, in the wet section of
the road we stopped to look at what I thought was going to be a Downy
Woodpecker. It tuned out to be a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER! This was
certainly the first time I've seen one of these birds near Wenas.

We drove down to Selah and returned home to Seattle via the
Canyon Road. Here we had wonderful looks at two GOLDEN EAGLES being
attacked by two RAVENS. It didn't seem like a fair match, but the eagles
settled onto the ground, where we could still see one with the scope. The
ravens dive-bombed it again and again, which the eagle sort of shrugged off.


We ended the trip with 101 species-this is good for us!-and
headed back to Seattle. One notable miss for the jaunt was Great-blue
Heron, despite being near water often. Our side of the freeway was
relatively empty but the eastbound direction was packed with cars, often
almost at a standstill from Easton on down almost to North Bend!

If we can ever figure out how to post a few pictures we took on
Flickr, I'll post them separately.

Sorry for the length of this message, Charlotte Byers, Seattle