I made a swing into Eastern Washington, leaving Kirkland on Monday morning, and getting home just now.

Monday, I had no idea I was heading into the maelstrom. I got to Wenatchee to find US-2 was closed in Douglas County. I wanted to take US-2 all the way across, so I tried to detour using SR-28 (VERY SMOKEY) to Palisades Rd. to Moses Coulee Rd., but found the latter closed south of US-2. So I drove east and then made my way NE on various farm roads. The wind was howling, and I faced brownouts from both dust and smoke and a combination thereof at various times. I did get to US-2 from Whitehall Rd., and headed east. Turns out I was still within the fire zone there, but at least I was heading east, not west. The air was clear where I was and eastward, though I was driving through some recently burned (and occasionally still burning) areas. As far as I can tell, the entire Waterville Plateau has patchy scorch marks. Yikes.

I was amazed to find water at Atkins "Lake", and amongst the ducks, geese, and killdeer, I found a LEAST SANDPIPER barely visible amid the blowing dust and smoke.

It was clear driving from there to Creston, where I had to take Miles-Creston Rd. etc., all the way up to Fort Spokane before dropping back to Davenport, due to another burn west of town. Both motels in Davenport were full (fire crews), so I had to drive to Airway Heights where I apparently got the last room.

Not a great day of birding.

Tuesday, the wind abated and the air was much clearer. I hit Reardon Ponds early, finding many species of duck, but no shorebirds except KILLDEER. I did have my first LINCOLN'S SPARROW, and had one or two at pretty much EVERY stop yesterday and today.

I then headed up to Green Canyon Rd., continuing down Mill Canyon Rd. to the Spokane river. On Green Canyon Rd., I had a NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL tooting. The whole road was moderately birdy, and very pleasant, but nothing particularly notable turned up. Same goes for Mill Canyon Rd., on the way down to the river. At the river were many CANADA GEESE, a good collection of ducks, about 100 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS, a PEREGRINE FALCON, two GRAY CATBIRDS, and two PECTORAL SANDPIPERS.

A quick stop at the Davenport Cemetery yielded at MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER.

Sprague Lake had a good number of AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS and one BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, but none of the egrets or terns I was hoping for.

Today, I headed down to Washtucna, and it was one of those days you dream about. Immediately upon getting out of the car, I saw multiple birds dropping out of the bush to drink in front of Patrick's bench. It was VERY birdy. The best bird was a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH which was in front of Patrick's bench when I returned from the far ends of the park.

In descending order of abundance (ignoring the riff-raff), there were WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, WILSON'S WARBLER, TOWNSEND'S WARBLER, DUSKY/HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER (very unsure how many of each), WARBLING VIREO, CASSIN'S VIREO (maybe as many as 8, some singing!), and MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER.

Also seen were GRAY FLYCATCHER, ROCK WREN, CANYON WREN, GRAY CATBIRD, LESSER GOLDFINCH, and WESTERN TANAGER.

The Washtucna STP had three BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS and maybe eight AMERICAN PIPITS along the south edge.

Lyons Ferry, later in the morning, was not nearly as birdy. It took a lot of patience. Most abundant birds (again, dismissing the riff-raff) were WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS and WILSON'S WARBLERS. YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS were also somewhat numerous, and I had my day's only ORANGE-CROWNED and YELLOW WARBLERS. Best bird was a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW near the old ferry. Best sighting was a MINK.

Hatton's Coulee Rest Area, on SR-26 at US-395, had quite high water in the pond, but there were a very few shorebirds around the edges, including a couple of BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS and a SOLITARY SANDPIPER.

County Line Ponds, west of Othello, had nine species of shorebird, as well as the possible GARGANEY that I posted about separately.

I then hightailed it to Wanapum State Park, where I walked the entire shoreline and found almost nothing. Heading back, I decided to walk back along the southern half of the park's shore, and found two SANDERLING, which were reported yesterday by Deb Essman. They're my 240th species for Kittitas County, so I was ecstatic to find them still there. I stood still, and they walked right in front of me, not 10 feet away. Don't know where they were the first time I walked that stretch.

A good trip, after the harrowing start. My cat is happy I'm home.

= Michael Hobbs
= www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
= BirdMarymoor at gmail.com



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