Today, Les Carlson and I checked some of our regular stops in Skamania County and an area I had not been back to in twenty years. We started the morning out at the St. Cloud Recreation Area where we quickly located the continuing BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER at about 7:30am. The bird was silent and easiest to find by standing next to the picnic table on the south side of the orchard and watching for movement in the tree tops, it was not calling. There were also BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS and a vocal YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT here too. We then headed to the Franz Lake NWR overlook where Les spotted an AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN floating in the middle of the lake. A stop at the Doetsch Pond at Skamania Landing produced a few Mallards and Wood Ducks and one female or eclipse plumaged teal that we finally decided was a CINNAMON TEAL. We spent the rest of the day exploring Monte Cristo Mountain in hopes of relocating any of the Thick-billed Fox Sparrows that I saw there in 1995. Unfortunately the hillsides of Snow Brush (Ceanothus velutinus) are now being crowded out by trees and we were unable to find the birds, the roads have also deteriorated with some interesting potholes and washed out sections.


Wilson Cady
Columbia River Gorge, WA