I ended up in Skamania Co mid morning and had a pretty good day, finally reaching 125 for the county. My "knittle" (take the sum of the codes listed in www.wabirder.com for all your birds and divide it by the #species that you have for the county) for Skamania improved significantly with today's finds. :-)
Franz Lake NWR is a miserable place when the sun is up in winter as access is already very difficult. Still, I found about 6 TRUMPETER SWANS mixed in with the Tundras.
At Drano Lake east of Carson, it was windy and overcast. Halfway down the road to the Little White Salmon Fish Hatchery I pulled over to scope the ducks that had congregated in the inlet (about 25 Barrow's Goldeneyes) when I heard a familiar note uphill. I first heard then saw 3-4 PYGMY NUTHATCHES which is likely a highly uncommon bird for the area. Also within the flock was a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. A first-cycle THAYER'S GULL was among the about 15 Glaucous-winged and Olympic Gulls. 10+ Bald Eagles and several calling American Dippers near the fish hatchery rounded out the tally. It was very active.
A Merlin was at the Spring Hill Fish Hatchery.
On the way back on the OR side, I briefly checked for the Hood River Black-crowned Night-herons and found 6 birds (all adults) at the Nichols Boat Basin. Isn't this well worth a quick detour across the bridge, even for the WA state birder?
Stefan SchlickHillsboro, OR