[Tweeters] Okanogan Valley & Waterville Plateau: Birding at WSU Trip Report (Washington State University birding club)

[Alex Sowers via Tweeters]

Hey Tweets,

This weekend, I and eight other Washington State University students had an
incredible trip to the Okanogan/Mansfield area with WSU's birding club
'Birding at WSU'. As the president of Birding at WSU and a big fan of North
Central WA, I figured it was only reasonable to suggest doing our first
ever overnight multi-day birding trip a few weeks ago. As mid-February is
prime time in this region, our expectations were high. So happy it came to
fruition! Trip leaders: Alex Sowers, Jacob Miller, and Dylan Hasemann.

Highlights included: Gyrfalcon, Yellow-billed Loon, Great Gray Owl, Snowy
Owl, American Goshawk, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Long-eared Owl, Western
Screech-Owl, Lapland Longspur, and more...

*Saturday (2/15)*

We left Pullman caravan-style around 6:30 Saturday morning so that we'd
arrive at Bridgeport State Park just after 10am. On the drive over, a
couple of us saw a couple Prairie Falcons along Hwy 23 in Lincoln county
and a single SNOW BUNTING with a flock of Horned Larks in Whitman county
(where they are somewhat rare). At Bridgeport State Park, we were
successful quickly locating one of the famous roosting NORTHERN SAW-WHET
OWLs. Next, despite seeing few waterfowl at Washburn Island during our
brief stop, we were lucky to spot a rather close EARED GREBE near the
parking area at the north end. For the next stop, we scoped Lake Pateros
from WA Historical Marker #28. Last July I found this marker while finding
a good spot to scope some Western Grebes. Since then, I've had quite a few
waterfowl highlights from here! At this spot, we were successful relocating
one of the YELLOW-BILLED LOONs Liam Hutcheson and I found in early January.
An awesome bird to get for the club! We ended up watching it attempt to
swallow a rather large fish for ~15 minutes before a Bald Eagle came in and
it started disappearing underwater for longer periods. With the Okanogan
River frozen over, Monse River Rd provided few waterfowl apart from a mixed
flock of Common and Hooded Mergansers near the south end. Our best bird on
this stretch of road ended up being a gorgeous adult dark morph HARLAN'S
RED-TAILED HAWK hunting the opposite side of the river. Its tail was so
white it could be mistaken for a Bald Eagle! After dipping on the
continuing Swamp Sparrow and Lewis's Woodpecker by the Monse Bridge, we
headed up to the expansive plateau above Monse. Despite missing a high
priority mammal target, we successfully stumbled upon an adult GYRFALCON
that has been hanging around the area. Though the bird was initially
relatively close on a telephone pole, it flushed and perched quite
distantly on a rock as soon as we crested the hill. A lifer for all! Not
too many birds of interest after the Gyrfalcon, though a large flock of
Gray Partridges was nice to see. As per Jamie Acker, I will refrain from
responding to any queries regarding the exact location of this bird, though
efforts from other birders to relocate the bird the next day were
unsuccessful. After we had eaten dinner and sorted out our lodging, a few
of us headed out towards the north end of Omak Lake to target Western
Screech-Owl. Quite soon after arriving at the spot I had them last year, we
were welcomed by the distinct sound of counter singing/calling WESTERN
SCREECH-OWLs. Owl species #2 for the trip! Dinner was Chinese/Mexican at
Los Gallos in Omak.

*Sunday (2/16)*

By leaving the motel in Omak at 7:30 Sunday morning, we were able to arrive
at Siwash Creek Rd around 8:15 just in time to come across our target: 33
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE! A bit further up the road after watching the grouse,
we all had good, though distant, views on an adult AMERICAN GOSHAWK perched
atop a large fir. While we initially spotted it flying directly away from
the first car, I followed it until it perched up distantly on the opposite
side of the valley for scope views. Though we planned on spending a bit of
time around Havillah and Chesaw in the mid-morning and afternoon, heavy
snow and a lack of birds caused us to cut our time in the highlands short
after driving Mary Ann Creek Rd looking for special finches. Despite
thoroughly car-birding the highlands, the only birds located were corvids
(nutcracker, magpie, raven). On the way back down to N Siwash Rd from
Chesaw around 2pm, we were treated to nice views of a NORTHERN PYGMY OWL
close by in a pine on Havillah Rd.  While initially on a telephone wire,
the bird only flew a short distance before providing excellent views to all
club members of its false eyes! Continuing back down onto N Siwash Creek
Rd, we stopped to scope and spotted a distant pair of adult GOLDEN EAGLEs
perched atop the conifers. Also a fun club bird, Clark's Nutcrackers were
abundant and quite vocal. We had a total of 91 during the trip. Though we
unfortunately missed White-headed Woodpecker, at one spot on Siwash Creek
Rd there were up to four Downy Woodpeckers, two Hairys, and a nice mix of
Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees. Besides House Finch, our only finch
species of the trip- Red Crossbill- were seen in a small flock soon after.
After grabbing lunch in Tonasket and seeing up to 200 CHUKAR, another
Golden Eagle, and ~500 Mallards on Fancher Flats, we headed down to the
Waterville Plateau in an attempt to spot Greater Sage-Grouse around sunset.
Despite arriving when there was still plenty of light, we had no success
locating any sage grouse in the possible spots I know of. Cutting our
losses on sage-grouse, we headed over to H Rd on the Waterville Plateau.
Here, there had recently been a series of reports of a Snowy Owl hanging
out on the rock piles on the west side of the road. Despite a thorough
search of both sides of the road, we were unsuccessful finding any Snowy
Owls and the sun had already set. Mildly defeated by our lack of success on
the plateau, we turned down Rd E NE from Mansfield to continue back towards
Bridgeport to the Inn at Gamble Sands (lodging). Maybe 5 miles north of the
turnoff, I was driving on a stretch of road meandering below a steep hill
when I noticed an abnormally tall and cylindrical shape perched atop a
telephone poll on the hill above the road. I quickly hit the brakes and
glassed the bird to confirm my suspicions, to my surprise, that the blob
was in fact a GREAT GRAY OWL. I jumped out of the car to alert the two cars
behind us and the whole club soon all had excellent scope views in the
fading light. This was certainly an odd spot and the first time I've ever
seen a Great Gray Owl with no trees in sight. After watching the bird for
maybe 5 minutes, it flew away from us and became instantly obscured by the
large hill directly above us. When we returned the next morning, we could
not refind it. Somewhat surprisingly, this bird is actually the first eBird
Douglas county record. After grabbing dinner and moving into our lodging
for the night, we headed back out to owl Washburn Island. After covering a
good half of the island scanning with the flashlight with only a couple
Great-horned Owls and the strong scent (plus tracks) of a Striped Skunk, we
decided to head back while hugging the row of trees bordering the west edge
of the island. No later than a few minutes after we started our way back, a
call was made by Jacob, and I was able to light up a curious LONG-EARED OWL
flying over us for the whole club to see. Pleased by our success locating
owl species #6 for the trip, we headed back to the Inn and fell asleep.

*Monday (2/17)*

After checking out of the Inn Monday morning around 6:30, we restarted the
process of scanning the large tracts of sagebrush on Waterville Plateau as
the sun was rising. Unfortunately, despite having good views of a dozen
Gray Partridge and dark & light morph Rough-legged Hawks, no other special
chickens were seen. Giving up on Greater Sage-Grouse, we headed back over
to H Rd in hopes that the Snowy Owl had returned from the previous day's
reports. With the same level of success as the evening before, despite a
thorough search up and down the road, we decided to drive a bit down 16 Rd
NE in an attempt to get on to Rd K NE to further search for the owls.
During a routine scan of the large rocks off of 16 Rd, Jacob and I
simultaneously got on a distant blob out against the horizon. As soon as I
got the bird in the scope and confirmed it was a SNOWY OWL, Jacob realized
that I was looking in a different direction as his bird and that there were
actually two Snowy Owls. A sweet surprise and a lifer for many in the club!
After watching them a bit longer, we decided to drive down L/Heritage Rd in
search of anything else that might be perched up on a distant rock. Also a
significant target at this point, the *whole *club had yet to find a single
Snow Bunting on the field trip. Despite few other birds seen during the
long drive down Heritage Rd, two huge flocks of Horned Larks (totalling
~1800 birds between both flocks) gave us an excellent opportunity to sift
through them in search of Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs. Quickly upon
scanning the first flock, everyone in the club was able to get good scope
views of roughly a dozen SNOW BUNTINGs mixed in with 600 or so Horned
Larks. It was fun watching the flock swirl around and sporadically hearing
the distinct Snow Bunting rattle call. After scoping the larks for 15
minutes or so, I was finally able to locate and get one other club member
on a single LAPLAND LONGSPUR before the flock reshuffled and I lost the
bird. Further down the road at the next flock of over 1000 Horned Larks, we
were successful spotting another Longspur, though once again only one other
club member was able to get on it given the constant movement of the flock.
With the final stop on the trip's itinerary finished, we headed back to
Pullman very content with our weekend's excursion.

Trip Report from the Okanogan/Mansfield area:
https://ebird.org/tripreport/333173

*About Birding at WSU (important!)*

I founded Birding at WSU mid January of 2024 with co-founders Jacob Miller
and Luiz Stern. Since then, we have accumulated 30+ members and have
sparked the birding-bug for a handful of now intrepid Whitman county
birders. With weekly meetings every Wednesday and field trips occuring
every Saturday morning, Birding at WSU has found quite a few notable birds
over the span of less than a year. Notable Birding at WSU club finds around
the Palouse include: Eastern Phoebe, Northern Mockingbird, Common Teal,
Short-billed & Glaucous Gull, and Swamp Sparrow. However, *Washington State
University has been unable to provide any funding for the club*. As a
result, officers of the club and club members have had to cover all gas
costs and other expenses out-of-pocket. This has been difficult for the
club, as we have a very ambitious plan for expanding club membership and
our diversity of club activities, but the club unfortunately consists of
almost entirely broke college students. So, I ask if you have any interest
in donating to Birding at WSU, please shoot me a message at (206) 775-9776
or alexander.sowers at wsu.edu. Any sum of money will count and will be
greatly appreciated by myself and the other 30 birders attending Washington
State University. Thank you so much!

Good birding,
Alex Sowers
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20250218/dbddb340/attachment.html>