Unless someone reports seeing any of the Umptanum GHOW, I'm assuming they are off and about. If you see/saw any there or nearby after last Fri., please report in. I've gotten several "no-finds" from Tweets who went looking for them.

For me and Dory & Ray Hamlyn, Friday had a lot in store for us between visits to "the nest tree". Mostly, a dearth of birds, high winds, vultures instead of Prairie Falcons at the cliff areas, an aggressively defensive House Wren at MP10 on Canyon Rd (which is apparently their nature), bighorn sheep, a flyover Lewis' Woodpecker at MP10, lots of sun and heat and blue sky, Common Poorwills on Umptanum Rd after dark, a Red-tailed Hawk scoping out the nest site that it had used BO (before the owls :-)), the call of an Olive-sided Flycatcher, a stinky corpse of a baared-toothed raccoon at MP10, a blue butterfly at Umtanum Rec. Area, Bald Eagle family at MP 15.5, Ospreys (both with and without fish), Yellow-breasted Chat calls, tasty food at Ellensburg's version of Red Robin (Roadhouse Grill, at the town end of Umptanum Rd.), one cyclist practicing for Sunday's ride down Canyon Rd. (no doubt), lots of sloughing off noticed on various cliff sides, a moderate hatching of flies, a good showing by several varieties of flycatching birds and doubtlessly more than I can bring to mind at the moment!

We spent most of our birding time trying for photos (see link below for our non-GHOW images) and barking up fruitless trees trying to spot Prairie Falcons and Golden Eagles. As some of you field-trip leaders have noted: "Fun trip and good company, despite minimal birdage".

Of course, the Great Horned Owl scene was fabulous !

Here's the Little List Dory and Ray made (and I added to) of the birds of the day (from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.). If you really want to know what is possible to see over there right now, I suggest you read Paul & Barbara Webster's trip report from Saturday, May 17th and others who undoubtedly will be posting this week, including next weekend (Seattle Audubon Wenas Campout).

Our list, then:

Great Horned Owl, Osprey, Bullock's Oriole, Yellow-breasted Chat, Mourning Dove, California Quail, Western Meadowlark, Olive-sided Flycatcher, House Wren, Black-billed Magpie, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Tree Swallow, Violet-green Swallow, Barn Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, American Goldfinch, American Kestrel, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Bald Eagle, Western Kingbird, Common Raven, American Crow, American Robin, Turkey Vulture, Lewis' Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Red-tailed Hawk, Steller's Jay.

Our photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjY9E3vd

For our Great Horned Owl photos and my report, see my post "Ellensburg Great Horned Owlets

- 5/16/14" and click on this link to my Flickr photo album for that : https://flic.kr/s/aHsjYggLhk

Barb Deihl
North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20140519/2fd589e4/attachment.htm