Tweets,
David and I spent a few days working on some SE WA winter birds and came up with a few good ones. I actually tried to post Columbia Co via I-Pad on Thurs. evening, but couldn?t get it to send. This was frustrating and made me feel really old...

On the way east (Wed 11/7) in Benton County we had a Golden Eagle flush out of a field on Case Rd coming down from Rattlesnake Mountain. Also for Benton, on the way home (Sat 11/10) there was a nice Clark?s Grebe in the Yakima River Delta off Kennewick?s Bateman Island trail. The grebe had a lovely yellow bill, a lighter-colored back, and a higher, lighter lore than the several Westerns that were in the water.

On Thurs 11/8 we parked at the picnic gate of Lewis and Clark Trail SP near Dayton and walked across the road to the main park. This is closed for the winter as are so many Washington State Parks, which is disappointing when you pay your season pass money and make your car tab contributions. I am not sure if it is ok to walk in, but we did. Down on the river David spotted a flock of 6-8 White-throated Sparrows (all either tan-striped or 1st winter?not sure which), the most we?ve ever seen in the state. They crossed the river to tape-playback and fed with the Song Sparrows. Then in Starbuck (yes, IN Starbuck) on the main street just past the tennis court and in front of a small, boarded-up house, there was a 1st winter Harris? Sparrow associating with many WC Sparrows. Next we headed to Little Goose Dam, where there was an Osprey finishing off a fish just after we turned onto the entry road, and on the way to the dam a Common Loon fairly close to the shore. At birdy Texas Rapids, we were surprised to find a flock of a half-dozen Mountain Chickadees?only a Code 2 for Columbia, but we didn?t expect to see them at the 586? our GPS reported. At one point they were in a shrub not 4? from me, the most intimate view I?ve had of these cuties!

We spent the night in Clarkston, Asotin Co. in preparation for attacking the dreaded Garfield County and checked Swallows Park the morning of 11/9. At the far end of the park (past the boat area) we were thrilled to see a beautiful, white-morph immature Snow Goose in with the Canadas, and a solo Redhead on the opposite side. We picked up a few of the ?easy?winter waterfowl in Garfield and were entertained by a Code 4 Belted Kingfisher at Illia Landing. We first heard it a couple hundred yards towards Lower Granite Dam, but it flew right to the Illia boat launch and rattled like crazy.

The temperature was colder by the day and we had a few snowflakes, but the driving was fairly easy throughout the whole trip.
Penny Koyama, Bothell
plkoyama at comcast dot net