Trip leader Eric Heisey provided the trip account below. Thanks Eric.
Since my return to Washington, I have found myself inundated with busywork and without a car, itching to get out and do some birding. So, what a great relief it was to lead a field trip on Thursday for North Central Audubon Society at Cassimer Bar! I had a few late cancellations which whittled our group down to a nice size of six in total, and we had a great time!
The first thing that we were struck by when we arrived at Cassimer was the sheer number of swallows clouding the sky over the south part of the bar. Most of these were of the Violet-green variety, though we managed to find at least one of each regularly occurring species and one Vaux’s Swift swirling around in the swarm. In total, I estimated that the flock consisted of almost 1500 individuals, with roughly 1300 being Violet-green Swallows. Funnily, swallows are often quite pish-able, and we were able to call in the swallows until they were flying close over our head. An amazing spectacle, and perhaps my highlight of the day!
Birding around the parking lot, we encountered our first migrants, noticing Purple Finch, Spotted Towhee, Lark Sparrows, Yellow-breasted Chat, Lazuli Bunting, Wilson’s Warbler, and a calling White-breasted Nuthatch (unusual for the location, dispersing in response to poor conifer cone crops in the mountains). We started south towards the southernmost tip of the bar, still being barraged by swallows while Soras called from the marshes. The Russian Olives on the south side of the bar are often where I have the best luck with songbirds, and today was no different. We managed to find a Say’s Phoebe, Eastern Kingbird, Chipping Sparrow, Gray Catbird, Cedar Waxwing, two Steller’s Jays (unusual at Cassimer), Hammond’s Flycatcher, Pine Siskin, MacGillivray’s, Orange-crowned, Yellow and Yellow-rumped warblers, and Black-headed Grosbeak. We also managed to track down the Mountain x Black-capped Chickadee hybrid which I have now seen three times at Cassimer; all of us had excellent looks at this unique individual. Raptors seemed to be moving overhead in small numbers, and we observed a Merlin, Cooper’s Hawk, and Northern Harrier through the morning along with the typical residents.
We popped out of the trees along the Columbia River where there were many birds on the water with excellent calm conditions for scoping. We missed very few of the regularly occurring species, with four Blue-winged Teal, two Greater Scaup, a Western Grebe, 19 Red-necked Grebes, and 19 Common Loons (many still in breeding colors) presenting the most noteworthy waterfowl. The rarest bird of the morning was a Great Egret at the tip, mingling with the Pelicans. While this species is tending to expand northwards, they are still somewhat unusual in Okanogan county. Also at the tip were a flyover Yellow-headed Blackbird and Red-necked Phalarope.
We looped back to the car, getting better looks at some of the birds listed above, and enjoying the lovely weather. It was a very comfortable temperature (mid 70s) with sun – perfect! As we walked back to the car, I tallied up the list for the morning. We had seen a very good diversity of birds for the morning, but still I was shocked to find that the total for the morning was 99 species by the time we made it back to the car! This was the most I have seen in a morning at Cassimer, but it wouldn’t be good enough until we reached 100! We searched frantically for a little while, and were eventually able to turn up a Vesper Sparrow along the access road to hit the century mark. What a morning! Below is a link to the eBird list.
Afterwards, half of the group split off while the other half of us went to the Douglas county side of the river to scan a huge flock of over 2000 birds. One of the first birds I put my scope on was an adult male White-winged Scoter – sweet! It was very evasive, but I believe all three of us got looks at it eventually. Also in the flock were a few Redheads, which we missed at Cassimer Bar. Calling from around where we were scoping was another White-breasted Nuthatch, a Canyon Wren, Mountain Chickadee, Hairy Woodpecker, and a Townsend’s Warbler, most of them new for the day.
We ended the trip with 108 species for the day – not too shabby for ending before 3pm in August! It was a great time, and I hope that all of the participants were inspired to bird Cassimer Bar some more.
On my way home to Yakima, I stopped at Getty’s Cove in Kittitas county and managed to pish in a Northern Waterthrush, a very nice bird for the county. Also present were a good diversity of flycatchers, including Gray, Dusky, Hammond’s and Western Flycatcher, Say’s Phoebe, and Western Wood-Pewee. It was a good day for migrants, and clearly it is a good time to be looking for vagrants! Get out there and see what you can find.
Good birding,
Eric Heisey
