Subject: [Tweeters] Skamania County Birding
Date: Nov 1 19:08:30 2013
From: Wilson Cady - gorgebirds at juno.com


Today, Les Carlson, George Mayfield and I did some birding in Skamania County before tomorrow's opening day of elk season. Our first stop was at the Franz Lake NWR overlook on Highway 14, where there were a few silent swans across the lake, 1 GREAT EGRET and a GREATER YELLOWLEGS. We did a loop through Skamania Landing where the lake is now being lowered prior to the return of the Chum Salmon that spawn here. There were 18 GREAT EGRETS on the exposed mudflats, a new high number of these birds for me in the county. A single male EURASIAN WIGEON was among the 300 AMERICAN WIGEON here. Rock Creek Cove, at Stevenson also had the same sized flock of wigeon, but with 2 male EURASIAN WIGEON. We then head north through Carson to the Panther Creek Rd (FR 65) along the west side of the Indian Heaven Wilderness area picking up a SOOTY GROUSE that came to a call. With a little back tracking we headed down the east side of Indian Heaven with a stop at Mosquito Lake, where we had our best bird of the day, a female SURF SCOTER. Wilson Cady
Columbia River Gorge, WA