Leavenworth Owling Weekend (2/26 through 2/29/04) Highlights

Joyce M. generously arranged for us to use three Trendwest Condos at Leavenworth. Four went over on Thursday and stayed three nights, eight went over on Friday and stayed two nights and one arrived early Saturday morning. Two others came on Saturday and stayed at another location.

On Friday, the four early arrivals birded the Columbia River and Waterville Plateau. We saw 20-30 Redhead ducks among hundreds of waterfowl in the mouth of the Methow River at Pateros. A number of American Tree Sparrows were at the Bridgeport Bar, in the same place we had seen them two weeks ago on the Eastern Washington field trip. We also saw Western Meadowlarks there and at a number of other areas, compared to only one seen two weeks ago.

A flock of Cedar Waxwings were at Bridgeport State Park and a flock of Bohemian Waxwings, one of our target birds, flew in to a tree where we had stopped along Bridgeport Hill Road. Two Northern Shrikes were also seen along this road. Flocks of Horned Larks were everywhere and we saw one flock of beautiful Snow Buntings. The Great Horned Owl was in the usual grove west of Mansfield and Gray Partridge were again seen at Withrow. Raptors included 8 Bald Eagle, 1 Northern Harrier, 1 Cooper’s Hawk, 12 Red-tailed Hawk, 2 Rough-legged Hawk, 3 American Kestrel and 1 Merlin. We had a total of 63 species.

On Saturday, four of the new arrivals chose to go to the Waterville Plateau to try for some of the birds we saw on Friday. The rest of us went to Confluence State Park, Horan Natural Area and #2 Canyon Road, all in Wenatchee. We got better looks at a Northern Shrike and new species seen/heard were Sharp-shinned Hawk, Ring-necked Pheasant, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Varied Thrush.

At 5:30 p.m. we met Sarah Smith at the Forest Service Headquarters. After a short talk we went up a side road from Ski Hill Road and walked for awhile in the snow. We heard a Great Horned Owl call a number of times and 2-3 times we heard the cat-like scream of a Long-eared Owl. Another stop off Icicle Road yielded nothing. Our last try was at the fish hatchery where Sarah provide snowshoes to everyone. It was quite a sight with all of us clomping through the noisy, crunchy snow in a single file. Again, we heard no calls, but we all enjoyed the beautiful moonlit night. A total of 41 species for the day.

Sunday, some of us saw a White-headed Woodpecker before we left the condo parking lot. We went to Blackbird Island on a beautiful, sunny morning. The highlight of the whole trip was a Northern Pygmy Owl perched in the sunlight about 25-30 feet away, a life bird for many of us. We watched for about 30 minutes and then continued on the loop trail while the two photographers stayed with the owl. They were still there when we got back another 30 minutes later. We went on to the fish hatchery and saw a Belted Kingfisher, and got good looks at two American Dipper. Total of 23 species for the day before we headed back home. It was a great trip which everyone really enjoyed.

We had a total of 15 Birders and 77 Species for the weekend.