Today, Les Carlson and I ran another Skamania County Big Day. We met at my place on Mt. Pleasant, where we started our list with a calling GREAT HORNED OWL, here our best species were MOURNING DOVE and a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. On Marble Road we had two NORTHERN HARRIERS and a BROWN CREEPER. Our next productive spot was at Franz Lake NWR, where we could hear TRUMPETER SWANS in with the many TUNDRA SWANS. Two GREAT EGRETS were along the shore there and we found three more egrets at our next stop, Skamania Landing. At Doetsch Pond, on the east of Skamania Landing, we spotted the long staying RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. Below Bonneville Dam there was a flock of about a half a dozen BONAPARTE'S GULLS, my first in the county this year. A male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE was among a small group of COMMON GOLDENEYES on Drano Lake, for the twentieth waterfowl species of the day. We continued to pick up a few species throughout the day but several misses made us unsure if we were going to match the existing record for a November Big Day. After we arrived back at my place well after dark, I decided to play a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL call and had one buzz our heads an perch in the tree above us calling incessantly. This owl was #78 for the day and a fitting way to break the old record since that was the last bird seen on the 2009 Big Day.

Wilson Cady
Columbia River Gorge, WA