Hi Tweets,

On Saturday, Bruce LaBar and I made an Eastern WA trip to the sage lands around Vantage and The ponds near George.

The highlight was a singing Black-throated Sparrow at Gingko State Park off of Recreation Road. This is the road that is west of the overlook and heads down to the water. When heading down the road, it turns to the right. At this point on the west is a gated dirt track road. We found the bird singing about 300 yds along the road below us.

In the willow thickets by the water was a Townsend's Warbler.

Quilomene WRA on old Vantage Hwy had singing Sage, Brewer's and Lark Sparrows, plus Sage Thrasher. A Loggerhead Shrike was seen down the road (east) about .5 miles, which I missed on my Birdathon 2 weeks earlier.

A nice discovery south of Wanapum Dam was a change in ownership of Getty's Cove. The sign reads The Cove operated by Grant Co. PUD and WA State Parks. The number and variety of trees looks great for migrants. All we were able to pull out we're a couple of Townsend's Warblers. However, the giant sand bank cut had a very active Bank Swallow nest and there is also a Bald Eagle nest on the property. My personal highlight was watching a half a dozen COMMON NIGHTHAWKS feeding above us.

At the mouth of the cove was a female Common Goldeneye, Common Loon, Caspian and Forster's Tern.

The water levels around George were a lot higher than two weeks ago. The only shorebird habitat we found was at the east bound I-90 rest area sewage ponds accessed from the frontage road. We found Black-necked Stilts, American Avocet and Spotted Sandpiper.

It was a great day to be out birding in Easter Washington.

Sent from my iPad

Marcus Roening
Tacoma. WA
C: 253-988-8313
Marcus.d.roening at gsk.com