2 Red-eyed Vireos, a couple of Yellow-breasted Chats and a Gray Catbird were singing early Saturday morning at Lewis & Clark Trail SP in Columbia Co. I stayed all of 15 minutes, but the birding was excellent.
In Garfield the highlight was a calling Gray Flycatcher (code 5 bird) along Bosley Grade Rd just as you start hitting the trees and the road turns east (coming down from Mountain Rd). A few White-breasted Nuthatches were near the NF border along Mountain Rd. I was able to get to Clearwater Guard Station, but not Misery CG due to snow. At the guard station, a female Three-toed Woodpecker was pecking peacefully a mere 10ft away. Also, several Fox Sparrows and Williamson's Sapsucker in the area. Back downhill, along 128, west of Fitzgerald Rd, near the Pioneer Cemetery, Tree Swallow, Lewis's Woodpecker (a code 4 bird), 2 Vesper Sparrows and a TV (also code 4) were all nice birds, especially in the heat of the day. Near the grocery store in Pomeroy was a Lesser Goldfinch; cruising town yielded a few more.
Today Asotin ... I camped near the NF border along W Mountain Rd (aka FR4304; access from the Anatone area) and birded all the way to the Wenatchee Guard Station. It's a great birding route, with lots of nice habitat, incredible scenery and few people. At the guard station I was a little surprised to find a small population of Brewer's Sparrows (at least 4 singers). At ~6000ft, a Brewer's singing from a 5ft conifer surely is reminiscent of the Timberline (taverni) subspecies, even though we don't have them in the state or anywhere south of the Canadian border except for Wyoming/Montana (I'm not so clear on that, but it's late). Also around the guard station an overhead Killdeer (!), 2 singing Fox Sparrows (not Green-tailed Towhees, alas), a persistently singing Wilson's Warbler (about 300yds down FR040), Ruffed Grouse and Wild Turkeys. Yes, a quite eclectic list for the elevation. The more expected forest species were also present. Otherwise, Grasshopper Sparrows were singing at Weissenfels Ridge & Montgomery Ridge Rd and Mill & E. Mountain Rd and a Chestnut-backed Chickadee was in the lower elevations along W. Mountain Rd. W. Mountain Rd looks like a nice Great-Gray-Owl-Road, but I didn't have time to explore further. Red-eyed Vireo and a breeding-plumaged Eared Grebe were at the mouth of the Alpowa Ck. Lesser Goldfinches could be found at pretty much every stop along Chief Timothy HMU. [They were also in Whitman Co, just across the river.]
Finally, a Forster's Tern was in Boardman, OR, along the Columbia. This is along I-84, roughly about MP160.
Stefan SchlickHillsboro, OR