Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum Field Trip (7/13/06) Highlights

Eleven birders were led by Brian Bell on this trip to Snoqualmie Pass and east to area north of Cle Elum. 68 species were recorded for the trip.

July 13 Birders

Looking at Flycatcher Nest

Black-backed Woodpecker by Richard Smith

This trip was advertised for the Snoqualmie Pass area and included two folks visiting from Illinois (good birders and nice folks). We started out in showers that continued up to the Pass. The rain was continuing there, and the clouds were low. We had BAND-TAILED PIGEONs in the trees across from Traveler's Rest, a flyby of AMERICAN CROW, and two perched and very wet COMMON RAVENs. A few hummingbirds visited the feeders around the building including a female ANNA'S. We conducted an informal plebicite and decided to continue east to find more suitable conditions (i.e. not raining, not wet, with visibility and sun).

Our next stop was at exit 93 at Elk Heights. We rather quickly found the family of BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKERs. We had an adult male and a juvenile working over the limbs on a burned Ponderosa Pine. It was notable that the youngster had learned much in the week since I had seen them, it was now actively searching and bark flaking on its own. But still was receptive to a nice grub when the adult offered it. A little later the adult female was found also working with a juvenile. While there we saw HAIRY WOODPECKERs, WESTERN WOOD-PEWEEs, CASSIN'S FINCH, AMERICAN ROBIN, MOURNING DOVE, and WESTERN TANAGER.

Back across I-90 and up toward Elk Heights. We stopped and worked an area of forest over, seeing WESTERN TANAGER, EVENING GROSBEAK, DARK-EYED JUNCO, BLACK-CAPPED and MOUNTAIN CHICKADEEs and WARBLING VIREO.

We came back to Cle Elum and went up the valley of the Cle Elum River thru the towns of Roslyn and Ronald. At the Wish-Poosh Campground we had good views of SPOTTED SANDPIPER and a few of us saw the cottonball fluff of a young Spottie. We made a brief stop at the Cle Elum River Campground where we were observed intimately by hordes of mosquitos while we were looking at a couple of Cascade Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels.

We proceeded upriver to near the Salmon La Sac Campground (closed for reconstruction) and found a great picnic spot by the river, sans mosquitos, for lunch. We had excellent looks at an active flycatcher, that soon visited a nest. This gave us an opportunity to look at it closely and decide that even though the habitat was not quite right we had a nesting DUSKY FLYCATCHER - "long-tailed" look, short primary projection, nice rounded head. At almost the same time we had another flycatcher working the area over that was rather different. More "peaked" head, longer primary projection and shorter appearing tail and more color overall - we decided that it was a HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER. Nice to have both species, but as with many of our birds, they were quiet. Next, we had two very strange appearing birds with much streaking, sort of ragged appearance but then we noticed the face pattern - juvenile TOWNSEND'S WARBLERs. Identification confirmed when fed by an adult male Townsend's. A RUFUOUS HUMMINGBIRD made several passes thru the area. A female COMMON MERGANSER was on the river.

On the way home we stopped by the WDFW access point near Golf Course Rd. For early afternoon it was quite active. We had views of YELLOW-RUMPED WARLBER including at the nest, YELLOW WARBLER, WESTERN TANAGER, MACGILLIVRAYS WARBLER, WARBLING VIREO, WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE, OSPREY, BALD EAGLE, and heard WILSON's and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERs and BELTED KINGFISHER. On the way out we heard a PILEATED WOODPECKER.

We had a very nice day with sunny, but not hot weather. It wasn't until we got back to Snoqualmie Pass that we ran under the clouds and rain again and everyone concurred that we had made a good decision.

We saw, or heard, 68 species during the trip - we felt quite good for a mid-July day when so many area experience the "doldrums".

SPECIES SEEN
From 7/13/2006 to 7/13/2006 ~ in Kittitas ~ 68 seen
DUCKS, SWANS, GEESE
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Common Merganser
HERONS, EGRETS AND BITTERNS
Great Blue Heron
NEW WORLD VULTURES
Turkey Vulture
OSPREY
Osprey - 2
HAWKS, EAGLES AND KITES
Bald Eagle - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 5
WOOD-PARTRIDGES
California Quail
SANDPIPERS
Spotted Sandpiper
GULLS AND TERNS
Ring-billed Gull
PIGEONS AND DOVES
Rock Pigeon
Band-tailed Pigeon
Mourning Dove
SWIFTS
Vaux's Swift
HUMMINGBIRDS
Anna's Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
KINGFISHERS
Belted Kingfisher
WOODPECKERS
Hairy Woodpecker
Black-backed Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
TYRANT FLYCATCHERS
Western Wood-Pewee
Hammond's Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
CROWS AND JAYS
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
VIREOS AND ALLIES
Warbl ing Vireo
WAXWINGS AND SILKY-FLYCATCHERS
Cedar Waxwing
THRUSHES
Western Bluebird
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
STARLINGS
European Starling
NUTHATCHES
Red-breasted Nuthatch
CREEPERS
Brown Creeper
SWALLOWS
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
KINGLETS
Golden-crowned Kinglet
CHICKADEES, TITS
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
OLD WORLD SPARROWS
House Sparrow
SISKINS, CROSSBILLS AND ALLIES
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Purple Finch
Cassin's Finch
House Finch
Evening Grosbeak
NEW WORLD WARBLERS
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
MacGillivray's Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
BUNTINGS, SPARROWS, TANAGERS, ALLIES
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Chipping Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Western Tanager
Black-headed Grosbeak
BLACKBIR DS, GRACKLES, ORIOLES
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
-------- STATISTICS --------
Species seen - 68

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Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum Field Trip (7/13/06) Highlights

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