Birding 4-16-1-2018

These Burrowing Owls are unique among the owls seen in the U.S. in that they have very long legs, live in burrows or cavities in the ground, and hunt primarily on ground squirrels and

Today Ken and I wrapped up or two day eastern Washington early spring trip with 14 more eBird lists and 8 more FOY (first of the year) species for WA. Conditions were difficult today, with high winds being the primary struggle, but at a high of 56 degrees, rain off and on, it just felt very cold and birds were hard to come by. That said, we still managed to find many of our targeted species. We started at Perch Point on Moses Lake, where the wind made it really difficult to look out on the water, high water levels made no place for shorebirds, and we made it a pretty quick stop. To try to find a calmer environment to look for Clark's Grebe, the main species left to find on Moses Lake, we went onto a somewhat protected arm of the lake where we saw the higher colored Clark's Grebe, with its bright orange bill in excellent light, and as a bonus heard a cock Ring-necked pheasant crowing.

Next we checked out the Moses Lake Dam Road, and then headed for Lemaster Road where a Burrowing Owl has been seen for the last few years. It did not disappoint us. See the photo at the top of this post.

Also near Othello is a place called the Para/McCain Ponds, known for a colony of Tricolored Blackbirds. We battled very high winds there to see a few of this species in flight. Often in calmer winds they perch in plain sight on the bull rushes, but today were roosting deep in the stalks for cover. I didn't get photos of these birds, but did get decent shots of both male and female Canvasback, and White Pelicans.

Male

Female

White Pelicans, unlike Brown Pelicans, feed in teams, driving small fish into shallow water and then scooping them up in their giant pouches under their bills.

The rest of the day was pretty slow birding, with high winds and we found only a few noteworthy species. We did see a distant Golden Eagle while driving on Lower Crab Creek Road.

Day totals were 8 new FOY Washington species for me, 6 for Ken as he already had seen America Pipit and Caspian Tern.

A great weekend to be away from Tacoma where it rained most of the time, and always great to get out with Ken. We are a good team together. Always have fun, and almost always find good birds.

Good birding. Steem on!