Hi all -
I spent Sunday [9/7/14] up on the Cascade crest at Windy Gap, straddling the King-Kittitas county line at the south end of both counties, and hoping for a good run of migrating raptors.

The raptors weren't moving much, but especially in the morning, the other birds kept me busy. Here's what I saw, from 7:30am - 2:30 pm:

Raptors:
Coopers's Hawk - 8? - one immature seemed to stick around all day, so I'm not quite clear whether I over or undercounted in the end - 12-15 sightings, but most were that one bird, I think. All birds immature.

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 5-6 - all immature

Red-tailed Hawk - 5? - again, one immature spent most of the day in the area, so getting a clear count was tough.

Turkey Vulture - 10

American Kestrel - 1 - only one falcon all day, and only at 1:00 - adult male.

Other birds:
LEWIS'S WOODPECKER - one flew across the crest for a nice King Co bird.

Horned Lark - 2-3 mixed in the big flock or flocks of American Pipits that were around all day.

Cassin's Finch - several around all day

Mountain Bluebird - 4 early

Townsend's Solitaire - 2

Slate-colored Fox Sparrow - 1

Golden-crowned Sparrows - a couple large flocks joined the more numerous White-crowned Sparrows.

Band-tailed Pigeon - one flock of 25

Warblers were mostly all Yellow-rumped Warblers, but I did have one Townsend's, one MacGillivray's, one Wilson's and one Orange-crowned.

Red Crossbills - one flock

Pine Siskins - several small groups

Evening Grosbeaks - one flock early

Violet-green Swallows - 100+ over the course of the day in small groups, often with Vaux's Swifts mixed in.

American Robins were constantly flying by - several big flocks of 50-100 birds throughout the day.

It's a good time to get up there to the crest to see what might yet come by --

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA