Today, Susan and I birded our home county with our first stop being at the St. Cloud Recreation Area where we quickly located the continuing LEWIS'S WOODPECKER along with a Russ Koppendrayer. A stop at the Franz Lake NWR produced hundreds of waterfowl feeding on the Wapato tubers exposed by the low water level. Nothing unusual but at least ten species were present. The dam at Skamania Landing has been opened and the lake drained to allow Chum Salmon to access the creek to spawn. The mudflats here also held hundreds of ducks, mostly AMERICAN WIGEON, 10 GREAT EGRETS (the most egrets I have seen in the county at one time) and the real surprise of 2 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, the first reported from the county this year.

Wilson Cady
Columbia River Gorge, WA