Subject: [Tweeters] Naches Pass birds (mainly King Co.) 7/5/13
Date: Jul 5 23:35:57 2013
From: Evan Houston - evanghouston at yahoo.com
Hi Tweeters,
Scott Ramos and I awoke early today to head up to the extreme southeastern corner of King Co. in the hopes of finding some east-of-the-crest bird species in our home county. ?I had no luck adding?a species or 2 to my King Co. "life list", but the outing included plenty of "consolation prizes" including both a mammal and a hybrid bird I'd never before seen in the county. ?
Probably our top 3 highlights were:
- Hermit x Townsend's Warbler - a male looking more close to a Hermit, but with some clear evidence of hybridization (seen about 2 miles before the turnoff from FR 70 to Gov't Meadows).
- Mountain Goats at Kelly Butte; video (can mute sound): ??https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJkEj_GBz0g
- at least 1 nesting Mountain Bluebird pair at Windy Gap (foraging on both sides of the county line but their nest was in Kittitas Co.):
http://tinyurl.com/k8nj8ao
Other highlights included:
- Sooty Grouse - just 1 fleeting encounter this time
- Gray Jay
- House Wren - at least 2 singing in clearcut on the left just after you turn off of Hwy. 410 onto FR 70
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee - posed long enough for me to get a photo, in which you can see its crown is not black like most chickadees: ?http://tinyurl.com/kc8vlkx
- half a dozen species in the Thrush family, missing only Western Bluebird among the expected ones
- a singing Nashville Warbler (Scott only) at the clearcut by the head of the spur that leads to the Kelly Butte trail
- sparrows included just 1 Chipping Sparrow (Windy Gap), great songs from Lincoln's and Fox Sparrows on territory, and side-by-side subspecies of White-crowned Sparrow singing (at Windy Gap) - Gambelli + Pugetensis
- Cassin's Finch flyover at Gov't Meadows.
- Western Scrub-Jay + Eurasian Collared-Dove seen in Enumclaw.
Good birding,?
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA