Hi Tweets,

seventeen of us enjoyed fortunate weather and many nice sightings on this
years winter trip over the Presidents Day holiday weekend. Unfortunately,
Ruth Sullivan was not able to join us as she is recovering from an injury
that occurred this past Fall. We missed her very much, but look forward to
sharing stories and hoping that she can join us next year.

On Saturday February 15th we headed for the Okanogan Highlands, and with
success finding the Great Gray Owl in the Havillah Sno-Park at 9am:

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The owl was spotted in a large aspen 40 feet high and 75 feet deep along
the west side of the road between the upper meadow and the rest room
parking lot trail head 1/4 of a mile south of the upper meadow. The huge
advantage of birding with 17 people is the number of eyes scanning, and
this paid off as the back seat passenger in the last car spotted the owl on
our way down! One of the trail maintenance people asked us to purchase
Sno-Park passes to use the facilities there. I was not aware there was a
Sno-Park pass, and this is the first year I've been spoken to about having
this pass.

The feeders on Hungry-Hollow Road, Grange Road, and Highland Meadows
Compound on Nealy Road were slow with nice sightings of American Goldfinch,
Mountain Chickadee, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, "Slate
colored" Dark-eyed Junco and a single Pine Siskin. This is the only Pine
Siskin I've seen all winter and a real treat when you're used to seeing
swirling flocks somewhere in the Puget Sound trough. We spoke to all three
home owners, and there have been only two Gray-crowned Rosy-finch seen with
no Common Redpoll. Most reliably, the Gray-crowned Rosy-finch are observed
early in the morning at 7 or 8 am at the Grange Road feeder. Sadly the
residents of the Grange Road feeder are moving this spring, so these
feeders may not be maintained. We gave seed to each home for our
appreciation of their efforts to attract birds.

We perused all our favorite roads in the region to no avail, as we dipped
on Gray-crown Rosy-finch, Common Redpoll, Pine Grosbeak and American
Three-toed Woodpecker. Needless to say, we worked hard for a few nice
sightings. The Havillah-Tonasket Road had many Rough-legged Hawks, with
occasional Red-tailed Hawk and Northern Harrier mixed in. South of
Havillah we watched a gorgeous "Harlan's" Red-tailed Hawk drop down from a
power pole and catch a vole. The bird was dark brown with a hint of gray
and no rufous tones. The base of the tail feathers where light, there was
white speckling on the breast, and the yellow skinned tibiotarsals had no
feathers. In the evening, during our decent at dusk, we observed at least
5 Great Horned Owls perched on power poles hunting.

At the Sno-Park we had nice sightings of Gray Jay. On Nealy Road and Mary
Ann Creek road, we had up close beautiful observations of Northern Pygmy
Owl. There was a flock of at least 12 Wild Turkeys on Havillah Road around
a homestead north of Muskrat Lake and south of Teas Road. The day was
trumped by the terrific views of the Great Gray which we walked away from
in the morning winter wonderland. By the end of the day we were exhausted
from our wanderings to locate other birds which were few and far between.

On Sunday, we headed for Conconully via Riverside. Canyon Wren was heard
calling and singing at the rocky butte on the Riverside Cutoff Road east of
Conconully Road. On our way back through this area, we had terrific views
of two Golden Eagle flying over. Four Sharp-tailed Grouse flew into the
aspen grove across the road from Happy Hill at the Scotch Creek Wildlife
Area around 7:30am, unfortunately they did not stick around and flew onto
the hillside north of the road so most did not have long to look. As we
surveyed the area, one of our birders did spot a Northern Goshawk on a
hillside snag approximately 1 mile away.

Conconully was also quiet, but we enjoyed nice sightings of Cooper's Hawk,
Golden Eagle, Red Crossbill, California Quail, Red-breasted Nuthatch and
Mountain Chickadee.

In the afternoon we headed for Cameron Lake Road. On Timentwa Road, east
of Cameron Lake Road, near an active cattle ranch, we had magical views of
2-300 Snow Buntings feeding along the exposed gravel on the side of the
road and bathing in the frozen ponds. The birds flew over our cars several
times, and despite their flightiness, it was wonderful to see the flock fly
around just over our heads. We also observed many Horned Larks, both pale
throated alpine tundra (E.a. alpina)/northern (E.a.articola) variety and
very yellow e. Washington prairie (E.a.merrilli) variety. Some of the
bushes near the road and adjacent to rocks had several American Tree
Sparrow which we also got to see very well.

We ended the day on Washburn Island where we got to enjoy waterfowl,
Canvasback, Common Goldeneye, Lesser/Greater Scaup, Bufflhead, Ruddy Duck,
Horned Grebe, and Common Loon. The island itself had good numbers of
White-crowned Sparrows and American Tree sparrows. We also saw Western
Meadowlark and a Great Horned Owl nesting in a Red-tailed Hawk nest in the
northwest corner.

On Monday, we started our morning on Bridgeport Hill at the Wells Wildlife
Area or West Forster Creek. We missed the fly in of Sharp-tailed Grouse as
we arrived around 7:40am, however we were able to inadvertently locate 7
Sharp-tailed Grouse in various areas around the waterbirch. Just south of
the registration kiosk in a region of birch and juniper, some of our group
located/observed Chukar and Townsends Solitaire.

At the base of Central Ferry Canyon, we had an unrewarding fly over of
approximately 30 Bohemian Waxwing. Unlike previous years where there were
thousands roosting in the poplars between feeding in the orchards, this
years looks were brief. We did not have any luck finding woodpeckers at
Packwood Cemetery, however had very nice observations of Red Crossbills and
Pygmy Nuthatch.

Waterville Plateau was slow, we were unable to relocate the Long-eared
Owl and find any Lapland Longspur that were seen on our scout trip.
However, around one of the farms along Route 2, we were able to locate a
flock of 14 Gray Partridge to end the trip on a high note.

We'd like to thank the wonderful birders who joined us on this fun trip.
It was classic winter birding with periods of seeing no birds, then
intermittent wonderful observations that made us appreciate the beautiful
country side and the animals that winter there. Everyone was very patient
and collaborative in sharing the sightings.

Until next year, good birding!

Shep Thorp, Fanter Lane, and in abstentia Ruth Sullivan.

sthorp at theaec.com <wsthorp at theaec.com> <2sthorp at theaec.com><2sthorp at theaec.com>
mobile: 253-370-3742
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