Hi -
I returned last night from a long weekend trip to Union and Wallowa counties.
Weather was not great, but was consistently better than west of the Cascades.
This was a fairly uneventful trip, birdwise but some minor highlights:
1. Fridayto Umatilla with a stop in The Dalles. Fairly sunny.
3 Lesser Goldfinches in The Dalles
I visited the ponds and trail system just below McNary Dam. Lots of
waterfowl. highlights were
9 Tundra Swans
2 Wood Ducks
30+ Redheads
50+ Ring-necked Ducks
2 Canvasbacks
2 Hooded Mergansers
also
1 White Pelican
5 Back-crowned Night-Herons
Saturday, in light rain most of the day.
1 White Pelican at Hat Rock State Park
La Grande:
50+ Bohemian Waxwings, thanks to great help from Trent Bray. Otherwise, the
town was not very birdy.
5 Wild (?) Turkeys walking through front yards.
Sunday - waxwings again, then to Enterprise. light overcast with sun breaks,
however I could see it was snowing in the Wallowas, and raining in Joseph much
of the day.
6 Cow Elk on farmland W of Cove.
No Gyrfalcon.
Elk Mtn Road had 3+ Golden Eagles, 7+ Bald Eagles.
Dunham Rd 5-7 American Tree Sparrows
Lots of White-tailed Deer
Monday - Enterprise then back to La Grande, and west to Boardman. Mostly sunny.
Still no Gyr., fewer eagles on Elk Mtn Road.
scattered Horned Larks on Golfcourse Road
Tuesday
West to The Dalles then down the Washington side of the Columbia to I-5, s to
405 and 26 to viit a camera repair shop, then extended purgatory of Washington
Co. traffic, and eventually home. Heavy rain Boardman to Washougal, mostly
cloudy rest of day.
My intent in crossing the fiver was to search through flocks of scaup for
Tufted Ducks, but found far fewer scaup than in past winters, and no Tufted
Ducks.
Bingen - Port of Klickitat Indstrial park area is buitlt up - harder to bird
than in visits a dacade ago.
Odd Goldeneye
5 Common Goldeneyes
3 Common Mergansers
3 Greater Scaup
Hwy 26: Odd soaring bird that reminded me of a Black Vulture: poor sighting,
my report was really just a BOLO.
Some overall thoughts:
1. Trent Bray told me that La Grande had snow on the ground continuously from
before Thanksgiving until 2 weeks ago. It seemed to me that small songbirds
were very scarce, except for House Sparrows - a few small flocks of juncos, a
few BC Chickadees. I knew this was not a winter finch year, but was surprised
by the dearth of sparrows etc. On previous winter trips I would drive around
neighborhoods looking for feeders, and then pick through the flocks looking for
"rarities." This trio I generally found full but unattended feeders.
2 Raptors were also relatively scarce - only 2 Rough-legged Hawks the whole
trip. Eagles numbers seemed normal, and perhaps harrier numbers, but
everything else was low. Few Kestrels, no Prairie Falcons, no Merlins, only 2
accipiters.
It seems the snow caused the song birds to move elsewhere of killed a lot of
them.
Wayne
