This blog entry was submitted by Joe Veverka, NCWAS
We had 17 birders meet at the 19th St Trailhead at 08:00 Saturday morning for 2 (turned into 2.5) hours of birding at Porter’s Pond in East Wenatchee. The weather was gorgeous – sunny, light breeze, and cool. Birding started off fairly slow as we walked north along a dirt path paralleling the Apple Capital Loop Trail (ACLT). We had nice looks at four Barrow’sGoldeneye and later found several Common Goldeneye for comparison. Mallards were the most abundant identifiable waterfowl. We had good views of a Belted Kingfisher and a Double-crested Cormorant in the scopes. Most of the waterfowl were far across the river, many in the lagoon at Walla Walla Point Park.
Heading south down the ACLT we found a pair of Downy Woodpeckers and re-found a gregarious band of a half-dozen Black-capped Chickadees. One of the highlights, as we moved south of the trailhead connector, was seeing our first violet-green swallow of the year. We also had nice views of an adult bald eagle while trying to get binoculars on a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers. The southern half of our walk was more productive than the northern half. We had great looks at Common Loon, Horned Grebe, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, and Buffleheads. We managed to pick out a few Canvasbacks among a raft of scaup along the west bank of the river.
Time management while birding has always been an issue for me. Most of us finished a half-hour after the scheduled time enjoying the nice weather, sun, and company. By all accounts, it was a successful outing! And, we identified 40 species of birds!