Late this afternoon I was playing the Ritzville golf course (actually, I was playing a tape on the course) and scored a very special double "birdie!" I noticed some commotion in a shrub on the parking strip of the first house on S. Fairway just off S. Weber (that's across from the McDonald's) so moved closer. House Sparrows in the bush first responded, then came the scolding of a Code 4 Black Capped Chickadee - which was my target and my 101st species seen in every WA county - but I was really surprised when up popped a Code 5 Mountain Chickadee. The home owner came out to see why I was photographing her bush and flushed the birds. It was an odd flock - the House Sparrows, chickadees, a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a single California Quail that "spit, spit, spit" into another tree.

Tom Mansfield in Moses Lake tonight