Subject: [Tweeters] No Ross's - Vantage Birding
Date: Apr 4 22:13:58 2015
From: Dave Hayden - dtvhm at nwrain.com


Sherry and I ventured over to the sunny side for a few sagebrush specialties. We first stopped south of Ellensburg to look for the Ross?s Goose, but did not see much at all, but a few CALIFORNIA QUAIL, RED-TAILED HAWKS, AMERICAN KESTREL, and BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES. We didn?t search extensively, just Tjossem Rd, and Woodhouse Loop Rd. So no goose for us.
We made our way east, cut off at Kittitas and took the Vantage Highway towards Vantage. When we started to get into the sagebrush we stopped. We got 3 BREWER SPARROWS, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, and SAGE THRASHER. Mountain Bluebirds were common along the highway as we headed east. Our next stop was at the Quilomene Wildlife Area. A single SAGEBRUSH SPARROW sat atop of the sagebrush, a BREWER?S SPARROW was singing, and a SAGE THRASHER was seen in the distance.
So onward to Gingko State Park. We stopped at the Petrified Forest and hiked the 3 mile loop trail. We had 2 HORNED LARKS, 1 SAGEBRUSH SPARROW, many HOUSE FINCHES, 2 DARK-EYED JUNCO, 1 SAY?S PHOEBE, lots of Desert Marble butterflies, a Side-blotched Lizard, and 2 Scorpions.
Next was the interpretive center. Here we had;
ROCK WREN ? 4
CANYON WREN ? 1
SAY?S PHOEBE ? 2
CHUKAR ? 2
TURKEY VULTURE ? 1
RAVEN - 1
VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS ? many
HORNED GREBE ? 2
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER ? many
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK ? 1
CANADA GOOSE ? 1
COMMON GOLDENEYE ? 3
Yellow-bellied Marmot ? 1
Mourning Cloak ? 1
Anise Swallowtail ? 1
Just when we thought we wouldn?t see anything new on the way home, we spotted 3 LONG-BILLED CURLEWS just west of Thorp in a field, and a small herd of Elk at MP73.

Dave & Sherry Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia, WA