Seconding Scott's note, Ellen and I observed a raft (35 or so) of California Gulls yesterday afternoon on Rimrock Lake, probably on their way west from their interior (American states and Canadian prairie provinces) nesting colonies to the Pacific coast, were they become abundant by this time in summer.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 20, 2015, at 7:06 PM, "'Scott Downes' downess at charter.net [BirdYak]" <BirdYak-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

> Michael,
> Great sighting on the Bonaparte?s! I?m not aware of too many summer sightings in Yakima County and would guess they are less than annual in the summer months in the county. There seems to be a pattern in summer of California gulls using large Cascade lakes (reservoirs) in migration. I have seen them at Rimrock, Bumping, Kachess, Keechelus and Cle Elum, mostly in July. Bumping Lake is a good spot for both American three-toed woodpecker (in the more mature forest habitat) and black-backed woodpecker in the younger lodgepole pine stands to the southeast of the dam.
>
> Scott Downes
> downess at charter.net
> Yakima WA
>
> From: mailto:BirdYak-noreply at yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2015 3:54 PM
> To: Tweeters ; Inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu ; BirdYak
> Subject: [BirdYak] Gulls on Bumping Lake Sunday + Sunrise birds from Friday
>
>
> I was doing a botany hike along the north edge of Bumping Lake yesterday, and was shocked to find 5 gulls out near the west end.
>
> One was an adult BONAPARTE?S GULL. Three more were very brown black wing-tipped juveniles, and I?m leaning towards CALIFORNIA GULL for them. A fourth gull was a very pale juvenile. I?m not sure what it was, but from the looks I got, it best matches a juvenile VEGA HERRING GULL.
>
> I?m sure about the Bonaparte?s; I?m decidedly not sure about the juvenile gulls :) I really wish I?d had my scope and a camera.
>
>
> Friday, I walked up to the Mt. Freemont Lookout from Sunrise. Birds of note included a BLACK SWIFT, an AMERICAN DIPPER at (un)Frozen Lake, which seems very early to have one so high, and a male WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN on the trail near the lookout. At Tipsoo Lake, an OSPREY flew over; again this seems early to have one so high.
>
> Saturday, I had 4-5 AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKERS while working my way along the road that follows the south shore of Bumping Lake; 2-3 were at a swamp, and 2 were at the fen. Sunday morning, a BARRED OWL called near the Bumping Lake campground at some wee hour of the pre-dawn.
>
> All in all, it was a pretty good weekend of birding. And I must at that the old-growth forest at the northwest corner of Bumping Lake is phenomenal, and Bumping Falls, just a bit above the lake, are a real treasure.
>
> == Michael Hobbs
> == www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
> == BirdMarymoor at frontier.com
>
>
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> Posted by: "Scott Downes" <downess at charter.net>
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