eBird Insights – Investigating the Birds of North Central Washington (Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, and Okanogan counties)

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Bruce McCammon

eBird (www.ebird.org), a global bird sighting database holds over 1 BILLION bird sightings around the globe. The NCWAS four-county area has contributed over 1.3 million bird sightings to the global total.

A new report by Bruce McCammon looks at the NCWAS eBird data between 2015 and June 2022 to describe the “Who?”, “When?”, “How Many”?, and “Where” aspects of the 306 bird species that have been reported to eBird from the NCWAS area. You can view or download the report here.

Graphs, charts, and text take a taxonomic approach to describe the North Central Washington bird species. The report concentrates on taxonomic Order, Family, and Species levels.

The report is provided in PDF format to allow you to download for use on your local device or, should you wish, print it. If you decide to print, the paper is set up to print as an 8.5×11 inch booklet using 11×17″ paper. The report uses color in many of the charts and graphs. Color printing can be expensive but the report should print reasonably well in black-and-white to reduce costs.

When you view the report in the free Acrobat Reader, please make sure that you set Reader to show a two-page display with “show cover page” selected as shown below.

How to set up Acrobat Reader for this report

A set of preliminary observations is provided at the end of the paper. If you discover patterns or have interesting observations of your own, please let us know by sending an email to ncwaudubon@gmailcom. You can send any questions about the report to NCW Audubon as well.

Methow Valley School Nestboxes: Season 2

Posted on August 18, 2022 by Janet Bauer

In mid April of 2021, middle school shop students built and put up twenty two nest boxes around the Methow Valley school grounds. That first nesting season, the nest boxes in the open areas near the school garden were successfully used by Western Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, and House Wrens. The nest boxes in the surrounding forest areas went largely unused with no active nests seen.

The spring and summer of 2022 tells a different story. The nest boxes in the forest were discovered! By the end of April, one box had a White-Breasted Nuthatch sitting on 5 eggs, four boxes had active Pygmy Nuthatch nests, and four more had active Mountain Chickadee nests. The wooded school grounds were thinned several years ago for fire protection with many of the natural nesting sites for cavity nesting birds removed. This spring it appeared that these secondary cavity nesting birds were hungry for nest sites and it was a joy to see them make use of the boxes.

Mountain Chickadee peers out of its nest hole

House Wrens were busy in both wooded and open areas placing twigs in numerous nest boxes. They eventually claimed four boxes. Western Bluebirds and Tree Swallows once again each chose a nest box near the school garden and were quite tolerant of nearby human activity. The White-breasted Nuthatches were feeding 5 young by mid-May and they all fledged successfully by the end of May.

Western Bluebird with a fresh catch for its newborns

White-breasted Nuthatch brings a morsel for its young

June was a busy month with the Pygmy Nuthatches and Mountain Chickadees fledging many young from their boxes.

A large brood of 7 Mountain Chickadees fills the box

The Western Bluebirds fledged their first brood by late June, with the Tree swallows fledging in early July. The bluebirds returned (presumably the same pair) and built another nest in an adjacent nest box. They were once again feeding young by late July. Fortunately the brood survived 100+ degree weather and successfully fledged just a week ago.

Summer day camps were held at the school garden and it was fun for the children to see the different types of nests built by the different species. A highlight is always watching young faces light up at the sight of baby birds in a nest box. It was a productive season for the Methow Valley school grounds with nearly 80 young birds flying out of boxes into the world!

Fun Features from Bird Fest 2022 by Susan Sampson

Posted on July 28, 2022 by Julie Hovis

The Keynote Address

This year’s keynote speaker for Bird Fest was Derek Sheffield, who is a poet, naturalist, and English professor at Wenatchee Valley College. He spoke about humans’ most frequent interface with wildlife—our encounters with birds in both our natural and built environments. Birds, he noted, have led to wonder, inspiration, and art. By contrast, “There is no marmot festival,” he said.

Sheffield described his own awakening to nature, especially birds, when he lived in a cabin on a remote shoreline with no outside communications. There, he wrote his first notable poem, about Pigeon Guillemots. For Bird Fest, he recited or read a handful of works involving birds from notable poets: “For the Wren Trapped in the Cathedral” by Pattiann Rogers; “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver; and “Sparrow Envy” by Dr. Drew Lanham. “I would find haven in thorniest thickets,” Lanham wrote.

Sheffield then turned to the alarming loss of bird populations and species occurring right now due to habitat loss and plastic pollution. He played a brief, wordless video by Chris Jordan, creator of “Midway: Message from the Gyre,” revealing the contents of the stomachs of sea birds that have died from ingesting bits of plastic. Birds swallowed pieces from the size of tiny beads up to whole bottle caps.

Returning to lighter ideas, Sheffield noted how birders nickname birds like “LBJs” and “Butterbutts,” and refer to them as “somebodies” as though they were human. He recounted an argument between famous bird artist David Allen Sibley and Dr. Dan Stephens, who teaches ornithology at Wenatchee Valley College. Sibley thought he heard a MacGillivray’s Warbler. Dr. Stephens corrected him, “No, it’s a Nashville Warbler.” Dr. Stephens contends that birds have regional dialects and Sibley was just more familiar with East Coast birds.

Sheffield read “Ornithology Lesson” by Jan Wallace, a poem about the amazing breeding acrobatics of Bald Eagles. Then he recited a haiku, of sorts. A Japanese haiku is a short poem invoking nature and the seasons. It has come to mean a poem of 17 syllables in English. He quoted a haiku about the nuthatch: “Honk honk honk honk honk…” You can guess the rest.

The Art Class

Charlene Collins Freeman, an award-winning watercolor artist, taught a Zoom class on drawing and painting birds. She worked from emailed photographic models. She provided some good tips for this duffer:

Start by drawing a light line from the outside of the bird’s thigh to capture its stance.
Along that construction line, draw an oval for the body and a circle for the head, being careful to overlap the circle onto the oval appropriately to the model. Not all birds have long necks.
Draw a light line from eye to beak to establish their relative placement. Sketch in the eye, but DON’T MAKE THE EYE TOO BIG.
Draw a light line from the first construction line through the tail to indicate its length and direction.
Sketch in the bird. Erase construction lines.
Notice that a bird’s legs are not straight toothpicks. Not only are they canted front to back, they are splayed from side to side.
As you paint, leave unpainted a white highlight in the bird’s eye. Add it later with something besides watercolor if you mess it up.
Use a wet brush and damp paper for smooth-looking surfaces and a dry brush on dry paper for rougher looking textures.
It’s nice to have the colors in the bird picked up in the background; that’s natural, too. The little buggers can be cryptic.

Because each color needed to dry before the next was added, the class didn’t terminate with the two-hour Zoom meeting. Freeman will send the class participants an electronic link that will be good for a year to follow her completing her demonstrations.

I’m no Sibley, but I had fun.

Comment on protecting America’s Western Arctic

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Bruce McCammon

Mary Gallagher provided the following material.

Worried about the decline in bird populations? Climate Concerns? Act Now! YOUR Voice Matters!

On July 8, 2022, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) addressing the implications of ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project for America’s Western Arctic. This project poses a potential disaster for this fragile Arctic region, home to Indigenous communities and bountiful wildlife including caribou, fish and migratory birds. This project will have additional impacts on our current climate issues. Please submit a public comment to prevent this project from moving forward before AUGUST 19, 2022.

The SEIS documents are now available at this BLM site.

For more information: https://alaskawild.org/blog/conocophillips-willow-oil-development-proposal-threatens-landscapes-communities-and-our-climate/

2022 Collaborative eBird Species List

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Bruce McCammon

The use of eBird to document bird species seen in the NCWAS four-county area (Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Okanogan) continues to grow. The list below contains the 206 species seen and documented in eBird between January 2022 and April 2022. How many of the 206 species have you seen this year?

A downloadable list that is sorted by taxonomic family can be accessed by clicking here.

The bird species added to the collaborative list in April 2022 are:

Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Harlequin Duck
Greater Sage-Grouse
American White Pelican
Swainson’s Hawk
Sora
American Avocet
Black-necked Stilt
Long-billed Curlew
Spotted Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Caspian Tern
Band-tailed Pigeon
Vaux’s Swift
Calliope Hummingbird
Lewis’s Woodpecker

Dusky Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Hammond’s Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Western Wood-Pewee
Bank Swallow
House Wren
Common Yellowthroat
Nashville Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Townsend’s Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Black-headed Grosbeak
Western Tanager
Brown-headed Cowbird

All of the 206 species seen so far in 2022 are listed below

American Wigeon
Barrow’s Goldeneye
Blue-winged Teal
Bufflehead
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Canvasback
Cinnamon Teal
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Eurasian Wigeon
Gadwall
Greater Scaup
Greater White-fronted Goose
Green-winged Teal
Harlequin Duck
Hooded Merganser
Lesser Scaup
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Red-breasted Merganser
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Ruddy Duck
Snow Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Tundra Swan
White-winged Scoter
Wood Duck
California Quail
Chukar
Dusky Grouse
Gray Partridge
Greater Sage-Grouse
Ring-necked Pheasant
Ruffed Grouse
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Sooty Grouse
Wild Turkey
Common Loon
Pacific Loon
Eared Grebe
Horned Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Cooper’s Hawk
Golden Eagle
Northern Goshawk
Northern Harrier
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Swainson’s Hawk
Turkey Vulture
American Coot
Sora
Virginia Rail
Sandhill Crane
American Avocet
Black-necked Stilt
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Long-billed Curlew
Spotted Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Wilson’s Snipe
California Gull
Caspian Tern
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Band-tailed Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Barn Owl
Barred Owl
Great Horned Owl
Long-eared Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Short-eared Owl
Snowy Owl
Western Screech-Owl
Vaux’s Swift
White-throated Swift
Anna’s Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
American Three-toed Woodpecker
Black-backed Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Lewis’s Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Red-naped Sapsucker
White-headed Woodpecker
Williamson’s Sapsucker

American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Prairie Falcon
Dusky Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Hammond’s Flycatcher
Say’s Phoebe
Western Kingbird
Western Wood-Pewee
Loggerhead Shrike
Northern Shrike
Cassin’s Vireo
Warbling Vireo
American Crow
Black-billed Magpie
Blue Jay
California Scrub-Jay
Canada Jay
Clark’s Nutcracker
Common Raven
Steller’s Jay
Horned Lark
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Pygmy Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Treecreepers
Brown Creeper
Bewick’s Wren
Canyon Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Pacific Wren
Rock Wren
American Dipper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend’s Solitaire
Varied Thrush
Western Bluebird
Sage Thrasher
European Starling
American Pipit
Bohemian Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Common Yellowthroat
Nashville Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Townsend’s Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
American Tree Sparrow
Brewer’s Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Fox Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Harris’s Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Sagebrush Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Swamp Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Black-headed Grosbeak
Western Tanager
Brewer’s Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
American Goldfinch
Cassin’s Finch
Common Redpoll
Evening Grosbeak
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
Pine Grosbeak
Pine Siskin
Purple Finch
Red Crossbill
White-winged Crossbill
House Sparrow

Deadhorse Lake Field Trip

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Janet Bauer

This past Tuesday morning, May 24th, a group of 8 birders met up with Juliet Rhodes and myself in Twisp and headed up to Frost Road for a fun filled morning of birding. As we neared our parking area, a Yellow-breasted Chat was spotted on top of a roadside snag. It miraculously stayed put and sang its cheery song long enough for everyone to get a nice look at it. What a great way to start the day! We then walked up the road to Shaw Lake where we had good showings of Ruddy Ducks, Redheads and a Yellow-headed Blackbird. The male Ruddy Ducks always look so beautiful this time of year with their bright rusty plumage and blue bill.

As we walked slowly to Deadhorse Lake, close views were seen of Black-headed Grosbeaks, Lewis’s Woodpecker, and Mountain Bluebirds. One male Mountain Bluebird appeared to be guarding a nearby nestbox as he didn’t budge from his perch as we walked by. At Deadhorse Lake, more Ruddy Ducks were seen along with Ring-necked Ducks and a handsome Barrow’s Goldeneye male.

One of the best things about this field trip was that there was never a dull moment. As soon as we finished observing one bird, another new one would appear. We all greatly appreciated Juliet’s excellent auditory birding skills which helped us learn new bird songs. More birds were recorded as we walked back to our starting point and the morning ended with a tally of 52 species. A perfect way to spend a sunny morning in May.

Canada Goose

Cinnamon Teal

Mallard

Redhead

Ring-necked Duck

Barrow’s Goldeneye

Ruddy Duck

Dusky Grouse (heard)

Pied-billed Grebe

Calliope Hummingbird

American Coot

Spotted Sandpiper

Turkey Vulture

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Lewis’s Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Western Wood-Pewee

Dusky Flycatcher

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Common Raven

Black-capped Chickadee

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Tree Swallow

Barn Swallow

House Wren

European Starling

Western Bluebird

Mountain Bluebird

American Robin

Pine Siskin

American Goldfinch

Chipping Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow (heard)

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Spotted Towhee

Yellow-breasted Chat

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Bullock’s Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Western Tanager

Black-headed Grosbeak

Lazuli Bunting

NCW Audubon Upcoming Field Trips

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Janet Bauer

Hi Birders,

NCW Audubon has three field trips scheduled for this coming May 24th, June 6th and June 12th. Grab your binoculars and come join us! Please see trip details below.

Deadhorse Lake Field Trip- May 24th

Join Juliet Rhodes and Janet Bauer for a morning bird walk to Deadhorse Lake from Frost Road on May 24th. A nice variety of birds should be seen with the arrival of our summer residents.
Expect to walk 2-3 miles on gently rolling dirt roads and pathways. Please bring binoculars, water, and good walking shoes. We will meet up at the Twisp Community Center parking lot at 8am and will be out for 2-3 hours. Trip is limited to 8 participants. To sign up, please email trip co-leader Janet Bauer at jsrbauer@gmail.com.

Nespelem to Goose Lake and Beyond- June 6th

By early June, all the spring breeding birds should be present in our region. We will spend a full day birding between the Nespelem River and Goose Lake, with the likelihood of continuing on to the Aeneas Valley. We’ll have an excellent chance to see several species that are uncommon in our area, such as American Redstart and Northern Waterthrush. Dress for the weather and bring lunch, snacks, water, etc. There will be only limited walking along unpaved roadways. We will meet at 6 am at the Sweet River Bakery in Pateros (203 Lakeshore Drive) and expect to return by 5 pm. This trip is limited to ten birders. To reserve your space, email trip co-leaders Art Campbell at rapakivi@methow.com or DJ Jones at
djtrillium@icloud.com.
NOTE: Participants must be fully vaccinated (two shots plus a booster), practice
social distancing in the field, and wear a mask (N95 preferred) when carpooling. Thank you for your cooperation!

Okanogan Highlands Field Trip- June 12th

Come bird the Okanogan Highlands! This day-long adventure will begin in Tonasket, ascending from the Okanogan Valley to roam through the varied habitats of the Highlands and sample its wonderful bird life. Our tour last year identified 92 species in the cliffs, wet meadows, shrub steppe, grassland, forest, riparian, wetlands and open water habitat along the way, and we missed some of the regulars!. Plan to walk short distances over level to slightly rolling terrain. Please bring lunch, water, sun protection and anything else you need to enjoy a day in the Highlands with the birds.
Date: Sunday, June 12: meet at 7:30am with projected end time of 4:30pm. Group size limit: 8 Covid precautions: participants should be vaccinated, practice social distancing in the field, and bring a mask to wear for carpooling.

Contact Todd Thorn to reserve your space with the group and for meeting directions, at water.thrush@yahoo.com

NCWAS Collaborative Bird List – 2022 First Quarter Report

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Bruce McCammon

There are numerous people in the NCWAS four-county area who submit bird sightings to eBird. 1,061 eBirders submitted 18,023 checklists to eBird in 2021. A total of 277 bird species were reported. Aggregating all the species seen in Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, and Okanogan counties into a collaborative list that contains all sightings by the many eBirders in our area allows us to see how this year’s bird species counts compare with previous years. Are more people using eBird? Are more species being reported than in previous years?

Those of you who receive our newsletter, the Wild Phlox, will notice a new graphic on page two. The graphic is a thermometer display that will show the progress of the total species documented in eBird over the course of a year. This type of graphic is used to show progress for many fundraising or membership drives. Why not use it to show the accumulation of bird sightings in our area?

For some, more detail may be useful. This post provides a listing of all the bird species found in eBird for the NCWAS area between January 1 and the end of March 2022. The list does not include hybrid species sightings (e.g., Greater/Lesser Scaup) or generic entries (e.g., gull, sp.)

January 2022 eBird data contains 140 distinct bird species seen in the NCWAS four-county area. February 2022 added eleven new species to the January total, bringing the collaborative total to 151 species at the end of February 2022. The eleven species added in February are:

Barn Swallow
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Blue Jan
Long-eared Owl
Red-breasted Merganser
Rock Wren
Sooty Grouse
Tree Swallow
Turkey Vulture
Violet-green Swallow
Western Screech-Owl

March marks the gradual beginning of the much-anticipated migrant arrival. By the end of March, the collaborative list for the four-county area contains 171 distinct species. The 20 species added in March are:

American Pipit
Brewer’s Sparrow
Cliff Swallow
Dusky Grouse
Greater White-fronted Goose
Greater Yellowlegs
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Loggerhead Shrike
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Red-naped Sapsucker
Rufous Hummingbird
Sage Thrasher
Sagebrush Sparrow
Sandhill Crane
Savannah Sparrow
Snow Goose
Vesper Sparrow
White-throated Swift
Williamson’s Sapsucker
Yellow-headed Blackbird

We can safely assume that there will be many new species added to this list by the end of April and May. Please make sure to enter your bird sightings into eBird so scientists have access to your information.

A list of all species seen by the end of March 2022 follows. If you would like to see this list organized by taxonomic groups, click here. You can view or download this PDF file for your own use.

American Coot
American Crow
American Dipper
American Goldfinch
American Kestrel
American Pipit
American Robin
American Three-toed Woodpecker
American Tree Sparrow
American Wigeon
Anna’s Hummingbird
Bald Eagle
Barn Owl
Barn Swallow
Barred Owl
Barrow’s Goldeneye
Belted Kingfisher
Bewick’s Wren
Black-backed Woodpecker
Black-billed Magpie
Black-capped Chickadee
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Blue Jay
Bohemian Waxwing
Brewer’s Blackbird
Brewer’s Sparrow
Brown Creeper
Bufflehead
Cackling Goose
California Gull
California Quail
California Scrub-Jay
Canada Goose
Canada Jay
Canvasback
Canyon Wren
Cassin’s Finch
Cedar Waxwing
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Chukar
Clark’s Nutcracker
Cliff Swallow
Common Goldeneye
Common Loon
Common Merganser
Common Raven
Common Redpoll
Cooper’s Hawk
Dark-eyed Junco
Double-crested Cormorant
Downy Woodpecker
Dusky Grouse
Eared Grebe
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Eurasian Wigeon
European Starling
Evening Grosbeak
Fox Sparrow
Gadwall
Golden Eagle
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Gray Partridge
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Great Blue Heron
Great Horned Owl
Greater Scaup
Greater White-fronted Goose
Greater Yellowlegs
Green-winged Teal
Hairy Woodpecker
Harris’s Sparrow
Hermit Thrush
Herring Gull
Hooded Merganser
Horned Grebe
Horned Lark
House Finch
House Sparrow
Killdeer
Lapland Longspur
Lesser Goldfinch
Lesser Scaup
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Loggerhead Shrike
Long-eared Owl
Mallard

Marsh Wren
Merlin
Mountain Bluebird
Mountain Chickadee
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Northern Goshawk
Northern Harrier
Northern Pintail
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Northern Shoveler
Northern Shrike
Osprey
Pacific Loon
Pacific Wren
Peregrine Falcon
Pied-billed Grebe
Pileated Woodpecker
Pine Grosbeak
Pine Siskin
Prairie Falcon
Purple Finch
Pygmy Nuthatch
Red Crossbill
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Redhead
Red-naped Sapsucker
Red-necked Grebe
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Ring-billed Gull
Ring-necked Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Rock Wren
Rough-legged Hawk
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruddy Duck
Ruffed Grouse
Rufous Hummingbird
Sage Thrasher
Sagebrush Sparrow
Sandhill Crane
Savannah Sparrow
Say’s Phoebe
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Short-eared Owl
Snow Bunting
Snow Goose
Snowy Owl
Song Sparrow
Sooty Grouse
Spotted Towhee
Steller’s Jay
Swamp Sparrow
Townsend’s Solitaire
Tree Swallow
Trumpeter Swan
Tundra Swan
Turkey Vulture
Varied Thrush
Vesper Sparrow
Violet-green Swallow
Virginia Rail
Western Bluebird
Western Grebe
Western Meadowlark
Western Screech-Owl
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-crowned Sparrow
White-headed Woodpecker
White-throated Swift
White-winged Crossbill
White-winged Scoter
Wild Turkey
Williamson’s Sapsucker
Wilson’s Snipe
Wood Duck
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler

April 23 (Saturday) and April 25 (Monday) -Upper Wenatchee Watershed birding

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Bruce McCammon

Join Sarah Smith, Mary, and Tim Gallagher for Spring birding in the Upper Wenatchee
Watershed.

We will start at Lake Wenatchee State Park (South Beach) and walk a dirt trail along the
Wenatchee River to the confluence of Nason Creek and return via an old road in a mixed pine
forest. This area typically has several Osprey nests to observe. It may be a little early, but
perhaps we will see migrating American Pipits and/or Harlequin Ducks.
We will then drive over to Fish Lake, a 500-acre spring-fed lake, that is stocked for fishing. There
we will walk along an old dirt road that borders the southern edge of the lake and into a mixed
pine forest.

We will be looking and listening for resident and migrant species passing by or settling in such
as woodpeckers, waterfowl, warblers and flycatchers. If time permits, we may visit the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust property along the White River to check for Cliff Swallows and American Dippers.

Dress for the weather, bring binoculars and lunch, snacks, water, etc. There will be at least 2.5 miles of walking, mostly on dirt trails and roads. Surfaces may be uneven and in a few places steep. Hopefully, the infamous mosquitoes will not have hatched yet.

We will meet at 7 am at Lake Wenatchee South State Park by the park store/bathrooms and
expect to be done by 1 pm. A Discover Pass is needed at the State Park. Each trip is limited to ten participants.

To reserve your space, email trip leader Mary Gallagher at marywillardgallagher@live.com by
April 20th.

NOTE: Participants must be fully vaccinated (two shots plus a booster) and practice social
distancing in the field. Thank you for your cooperation.

Raptor Ramblings – March 2022 – Coulee City

Posted on March 21, 2022 by Marilyn Sherling

Here’s something we did not experience this survey season… fog.

When we started driving the Winter Raptor surveys in 2019, we ran two surveys each month, March through November, for a total of ten surveys per season. Occasionally, we would head out to drive towards the start of our survey route, only to find when we got there, or even before, that the fog was so thick we couldn’t see across the road. Much less see any raptors (See photo above from a previous year).

This year, we added an additional route, for a total of 15 separate surveys for the season, and did not once encounter fog! Yippee! That made us very happy! Rather surprised… but very happy. There’s nothing like driving 60 miles to the start of your route only to find you can’t see across the road and have to go back home to try it another day. We are very thankful that did not happen this year!

This was the last survey for the 2021/2022 winter survey season. It’s obvious that the seasons are changing. The small islands located in the Grand Coulee lake chain are covered with gulls.

Lots of (mainly California) Gulls have moved into the Coulee.

The snow is gone, the hills are turning green, the birds are providing aerial acrobatics, and we found only one Rough-legged Hawk.

The last Rough-legged Hawk of this season.

Highway 17 going north through Grand Coulee saw a lot more activity than in previous trips, and that included vehicular traffic! Everyone was on the road, and everyone was in a hurry! Fortunately, the road through the Coulee has lots of pull outs and places you can stop. I think we used them all.

Between SR 17 and US 2, we saw eight Red-tailed Hawks, six of them in pairs. At the north end of Soap Lake we saw a pair of Falcons flipping and turning high above us. They were too fast to get a picture or a good enough look to positively identify them. But they definitely had the angular, pointed wings and checkerboard underwings of a member of the falcon family. Along Park Lake an adult Bald Eagle watched our every move.

As we headed east across the Dry Falls Dam, we were surprised to still see ice along the edges of Banks Lake. We found a funny Canada Goose stepping along the ice like he was afraid of falling.

This photo doesn’t show how much trepidation this Canada Goose had in crossing the ice.

The last 30 miles south of Hartline yielded zero birds. It’s what seems like endless miles of agricultural land. No trees. No grassland. No shrubbery. And no birds. Even sitting and watching the trees and equipment surrounding the occasional farmyards for a length of time, didn’t yield any resident raptors. We were hoping for maybe a Kestrel or two. If they were there, they didn’t show.

We did drive close to the abandoned farm that is a couple miles south of Highway 2, looking for the Great Horned Owls that nest there. We know they are there, but since we didn’t actually see them this time, we couldn’t count them.

Barn with the two Great Horned Owls that didn’t show.

This wraps it up for the 2021/2022 winter raptor survey season for us. There are still routes available if you are interested in participating next season. For information, contact Jeff Fleischer at raptorrunner97321@yahoo.com

Here is a summary of what was seen:

Red-tailed Hawk 10
American Kestrel 1
Northern Harrier 1
Bald Eagle – Adult 1
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Unidentified Buteo 1
Unidentified Falcon 2