Hey all,

This weekend for the Yakima Audubon birdathon I covered the lower Yakima Valley and Lower Wenas routes. I covered the lower valley on Saturday, and the lower Wenas on Sunday morning, swinging up and over North Wenas Rd on the way back to Bellingham in the afternoon.

The lower valley was great this year. Water levels at Mabton boat launch were not quite as incredible as they were last year, but I think improved route design made up for those missed species. I had some great sightings on the day, the most notable being a mammal and not a bird! At 5:30am I was wandering the Horse Heaven Hills, searching for Short-eared Owls. I had just found an owl (actually a pair, with a probable nest) and stopped when across the road pranced three Pronghorn!!! At the moment I was completely unaware that they still existed in Washington, and in shock, I proceeded to rattle off as many photos as I could. Researching this more later, I found that Pronghorn have been reintroduced on Yakima Nation lands in the last couple years. These reintroductions have been moderately successful, and the population has spread east into the Horse Heavens. Still, they are pretty uncommon, with probably less than 200 individuals state-wide. This was my second great mammal encounter on a birdathon big day, as two years ago I lucked upon four Mountain Lions in the Wenas. Okay, back to the birds! I found all of the expected shrub steppe species in the Horse Heavens minus Loggerhead Shrike (not a great place for them), including Grasshopper Sparrow and Sage Thrasher. I also found several Mountain Bluebirds there, I think a good species for the route, but expected. After the Horse Heavens I hit Mabton for several hours, which was initially quiet, but progressively became more and more active as migrants began to drop in. Highlights here were three Semipalmated Plovers at Mabton boat launch (the second year in a row!!), seven Sandhill Cranes, American Avocets, American Bittern, and several good migrants, the most unexpected by me being four Red-breasted Nuthatches. From here I visited the Van Belle Reservoir, which had a surprising late Tundra Swan (not even injured, I watched it fly in) and a Western Sandpiper foraging with a pair of Least Sandpipers. It was getting hot at this point, and I struggled to find any other notable birds (two Rock Wrens below my house in Granger were an exception) until later that afternoon when I revisited the boat launch and had a flyover Ring-billed Gull. Later, swinging back by the reservoir I was pleased to find a bathing Long-billed Curlew and had seven migrating California Gulls. I then tried a second time for the Ferruginous Hawk on Lewandowski Rd, ultimately failing. I spent over an hour and a half on the day searching for this bird, so you can't say I didn't try. Another notable miss was Black-crowned Night-Heron, which I also spent about an hour and a half searching for on the day. I missed a few other species, most notably Turkey Vulture (which is actually not incredibly common in the lower valley), with smaller missed like Black-chinned Hummingbird, Dusky Flycatcher, and Western Tanager. Overall it was a great day, and I managed to beat my total from last year with 112 species on the day.

I covered the lower Wenas on Sunday morning, arriving at Harlan Landing around 6:00am. Migrants were on the move; Nashville Warbler and Red-breasted Nuthatch were the best of these. The best and most surprising bird was a singing Pacific Wren, not a species I had expected to encounter here! Maybe an individual that wintered here and has yet to move out? Who knows. Moving on, I ticked some ducks around Pomona Rd and kept moving towards Sheep Company Rd. Here I was treated to lovely views of three different Short-eared Owls flopping over the grasslands as the sun rose. What a treat! Not much else of note here, although I did manage to find a Western Meadowlark nest nestled at the base of a wheatgrass. I continued north, leaving the lower Wenas route that I was supposed to cover (having covered the major places I usually stop at), and stopped at the farm pond just below Wenas Lake. This had a few good birds, including a Solitary Sandpiper, a displaying male Wild Turkey, and a Rock Wren. I moved up through the Wenas, stopping at Hardy Canyon, BBQ Flats, and Wenas campground, failing to turn up anything exceptional, but enjoying the return of some great spring birds. I searched pretty thoroughly for White-headed Woodpecker and Pygmy Nuthatch to no avail; hopefully Jeff had no trouble tracking these down. Off-roaders were terribly loud and obnoxious at BBQ Flats and Wenas Campground, so I opted to head up to the observatory for some peace and quiet as I was officially off-duty. I didn't find many notable birds save for a Sooty Grouse hooting near the top (maybe in Kittitas county?), but did find a small group of Elk, some beautiful Sagebrush Violets (my favorite flower), and a powerful storm at the top. I opted to head back towards Bellingham around 2:00pm as the rain really started coming down, finishing with 89 species for the day, pretty good considering the laid back nature of much of the day.

It was a wonderful weekend to be out! This makes me miss the landscapes of eastern Washington, superior to the summer birding in western Washington, in my humble opinion.

Good birding,

Eric Heisey
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20180507/b4720b3c/attachment.html>