MLK Day in the North Central WA was a great way for Ken to lead the last day of his last field trip as leader the Tahoma Audubon Advanced Birding Class. We started by driving around Omak looking for waxwings and raptors in the city without much success. It seems like the whole area has a lot more snow and a lot less small birds and small bird-eating raptors than is usual. From there we headed for the Scotch Creek Wildlife Area to look for Sharp-tailed grouse. On the way at the usual spot we looked for Chukar without luck, but did see a few Gray Partridge in the area near the cattle. Thanks to advice from Stephan Schlick who birded the area yesterday on the WOS trip we found the STGR up the side road easily after they were not noted in the tall trees beside the road. We had 6 perched initially, they flew off and then Jody noted a 7th bird preched. It then flew directly overhead, giving us great looks at the bowed wings, and the short, sharp tail.
On the ride back to the Highway we found Chukar, Gray Partridge, CA quail all near the feed lot, and has a nice dark form RLHA fly by.
From there we looked for Bohemian waxwings on the way to Cameron Lake Loop Road, no luck. On the loop drive we looked for the White-headed woodpecker at the usual place where the flag flies across the road, but no luck. I did feel good about quickly getting on an immature Goshawk that had a quick flyby over the road. Patricia got a quick photo to confirm the ID. It’s not often that Ken misses a raptor that I get. Much more often it’s the other way around.
Later on we turned off Cameron loop road onto Timentwa Rd and near the cattle and horse feeding area found a small flock of Snow Buntings and Horned Larks that had been reported there earlier in the weekend. Despite fog the buntings were nicely viewed at close range feeding in the straw and mud. The rest of the drive out the south end of Cameron Lake Loop Road was slower as the road was not freshly plowed and we found no falcons except a coupe Am. Kestrel
Next destination was Brewster and Central Ferry Canyon Rd for Bohemian Waxwings We did manage to see our first Merlin in town and after some looking found approx. 60 Bohemian waxwings in the poplar trees just ulp the canyon from the warehouse/fruit factory on the right. There were good numbers of Varied thrush feeding on the apples as well as lots of Ca quail The resident Rufous form RTHA was present too. Part way thru the look for the waxwings Ken had our car drive back to the lookout over the reservoir for the reported Long-tailed ducks. No luck on those but we did see COLO, PBGR, EAGR, thousands of LESC and a variety of other ducks and lots of AMCO. We ended the trip and got home about 7:20 PM. I was very happy with the Subaru Outlook, my new car, in the snow and ice. Traveling with Susan Boynton and Susan Pendleton, a car of me and two women, was different than riding with Ken, but a nice experience.
All of us tried to express our thanks to Ken for his decades of classes and field trips. Most of the class is somewhat mourning the passing of this tradition. I’m selfishly excited about Ken me having more time and freedom to head off on birding adventures together. We are already planning ABC trips for the Yellow and Black Rail in May as well as a repositioning cruise earlier.