Sorry for the late report (due to keyboard issues); there are still hours
left in the weekend. Yesterday Jim Danzenbaker and I took a small group
from Black Hills Audubon to a few locations around Clark County for a day of
birding. We stopped at Steigerwald NWR, Frenchman's Bar and down Lower
River Road to the gate, back to Vancouver Lake at the flushing channel, and
finished the day at Marine Park and Wintler Park. A good variety at
Steigerwald, although nothing notable from our walk. We departed quickly
for Frenchman's Bar Park after receiving the text from Cindy McCormack of a
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, apparently just missing a Northern Shrike seen by Ron
Escano's group at Steigerwald. We met Cindy as she was leaving, and a few
of us got brief looks at the gnatcatcher that we relocated in a large
foraging flock of mostly warblers, kinglets, chickadees and bushtits about
25 yards north of the crossing trails heading north. Searching for another
half hour we did not see it again. Continuing down Lower River Road we made
a stop at Fazio's silage storage pile before the gate for blackbirds, and
discovered a Say's Phoebe actively working the open areas between the road
and the silage pile. The levee trail at the gate offered good views of
pipits and cranes. Vancouver Lake was busy with a weekend crowd, but views
on the lake included single Clark's Grebe and Red-necked Grebe. Our last
areas back upriver included a group of Bonaparte's Gulls and another
Red-necked Grebe at Marine Park, and eventually we found the scoter flock a
ways upstream. From Wintler Park we had a closer look at the flock that
included a wigeon and some Lesser Scaup and Buffleheads. I counted the Surf
Scoters in the flock five times as they compacted, dove, and stretched out
and came up with as many as 74; by far the most I have seen this far up the
Columbia River.



Randy Hill

Ridgefield

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