Tweets ? the stupendously glorious weather east of the Cascades was too good to resist, so I ended up spending both Saturday and today over there. How can you beat Saturday in Yakima with temps in the low 40?s, no wind, and sunshine???

Yesterday, I was able to find the SNOWY OWL in Yakima by driving around the Costco area and finally seeing some birders staring intently through their optics. It?s important to know the field marks to be searching for :)

That took all of 15 minutes, so with the rest of the day, I got brave and birded on the Yakima Training Center. There were very, very few birds heading east on Cold Creek Rd., which left me a bit disheartened. But I went up and over the ridge to where the Columbia River / Priest Rapids Lake was visible, and things got birdier. I had a SHRIKE near the ridge that may have been a lingering Loggerhead, but I couldn?t be sure. I did have a flock of CHUKAR on the steep road down towards the water.

>From the southeast corner of YTC Area 6, looking SE towards Priest Rapids Dam, there was a huge flock of mixed Scaup and Redheads that had a couple of good birds. Best was a beautiful male TUFTED DUCK, showing glistening white sides, a jet black back, and a very nice tufted head. There was also a CANVASBACK in that flock, and two RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS nearby. The flock was just north of the buoy-line above the dam. Further north, I found several small groups of WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, some in Yakima and some in Grant. There were also two PACIFIC LOONS, and a couple of EARED GREBES.

Today I spent scouting for my Cle Elum CBC (Monday, December 17, if anyone wants to help out, hint hint). My wife and I bicycled much of the Iron Horse trail that bisects the circle. Nothing unusual, but we did have a couple AMERICAN DIPPERS, three RUFFED GROUSE, and five WILD TURKEY, as well as a pair of BALD EAGLES dancing. Not a bad day at all.

It was amazing to see how quickly areas are already greening up after the Taylor Bridge fire. It will be interesting to see how many of the Ponderosas that have brown needles but uncharred bark might still be alive; I?m thinking there may not have been that many trees killed in the fire after all. We had trouble finding any sizable stands of charred timber, and no luck with Black-backed Woodpeckers.

== Michael Hobbs
== www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== BirdMarymoor at frontier.com