Still there at 7am, on Sunset Beach. I only saw one.
Rick Tyler
On Fri, Aug 16, 2019, 5:54 PM Jon Houghton <
jon.houghton at hartcrowser.com>
wrote:
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Hi Tweets -; Wednesday, Kathleen and I headed over Washington Pass (no
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3-toes evident around the parking lot) and up to Hart's Pass with the
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intent of hiking a bit of the PCT to look for ptarmigan and maybe, the
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Spruce Grouse seen by David Poortinga a few days earlier. The weather and
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hiking were superb but no 'chickens' to be seen either on the PCT from
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Hart's Pass to the sadly burned up Meadows Campground or up on Slate Peak.
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Flowers and views were great though! (Side note, if you want to go look
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for the Spruce Grouse: the PCT southbound from the Pass is not marked (!)
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but is the trail to the left, right where FS road 700 (obscurely marked on
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a post where it heads downhill north from the pass). On the way up to Sun
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Mtn Lodge for dinner, we did see a pretty stationary Dusky Grouse on the
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road shoulder by the east end of Patterson Lake. She stayed pretty
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immobile while I turned around to go back for pictures. Next morning, we
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headed up Route 20 toward Loup Loup and took the unmarked right onto the
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Pole Pick Mtn. road that leads under power lines and up into an area the
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burned badly a few years ago. Uphill from the road is badly charred but
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downhill is mostly intact forest, contributing to a high bird diversity and
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activity (at least Thursday morning!). Highlights for me were Williamson's
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Sapsucker that we had previously seen in this area (a male and two
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juv/females responded to playback). Feeling good about that, I decided to
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go for broke and played Black-backed. Very soon, I was in a drumming
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contest with a bird out of sight up in the burned trees. After about 10
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minutes, he finally moved around a trunk providing good, if a bit distant
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views; my second BB ever, and a lifer for Kathleen! From there, we drove
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down through Okanogan to lunch at the PUD picnic area at the Bridgeport SP
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turnoff (Eastern Kingbird here) and then wandered for an hour or so through
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sage country around the Leahey lek, looking in vain for Sage Grouse. From
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there, we headed south down Heritage (or L) Road toward the 'Heritage Rd.
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flooded fields' hotspot, the '6th and N ponds' hotspot, and Atkins Lake.
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All of these were surprisingly full of water and birds, with hundreds of
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ducks, geese, and shorebirds including many yellowlegs and peeps, a
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Baird's, a Solitary, and a family of one adult and 3 half-sized
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Black-necked Stilts. Wish we'd had more time to sort through the rest of
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the shorebirds, but a good trip for sure! Happy Birding -; Jon Houghton,
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Edmonds
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