Today Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar and I left Tacoma at 6 Am to head east on what has recently been an annual trek for the three of us to get our FOY sage habitat species and a few early returning species for the year. Ken met me at my house, we picked up Bruce and headed east on Hwy 18 –> I-90, through Kittitas to the Old Vantage Hwy. Our first birding stop was at 8:41 AM at a spot we have had luck with in recent years, and we managed Brewer’s Sparrow and Sage Thrasher there, though it was less active than in past years. No luck with Vesper Sparrow or Loggerhead Shrike, a trend that continued all day with these two elusive species.
Next was just a bit east on the Old Vantage Hwy to the Wild Horse Wind Energy site. This area has been our most dependable spot for Sagebrush Sparrow in recent years, and it continued to produce with close-up looks at this favorite sparrow.

Shortly after a pair of Mountain Bluebirds gave a show, but only the female lent to good photos.

We made a few more stops on this road, but had little more success with new species. The area burned a couple of years ago, and the habitat is badly degraded.
From here we headed for Othello, with a stop on the way at the County Line Ponds, which gave us Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet as Sandhill Cranes gave an overhead show.

At Othello we were hoping for Yellow-headed and Tri-colored Blackbirds, Cinnamon Teal, and possibly shorebirds or other new year birds. These three obliged, though not for decent photos, and Canvassback, Cliff Swallow, and very distant looks at Bonaparte’s Gull were a nice bonus.

We then drove across the Columbia NWR, getting good looks at singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler, and lots of great vistas.

From here we picked up close in Clark’s Grebes, including one calling its hoarse one-syllable note at Lind Coulee, and then the real surprise and awe of the day was a gigantic flock of Snow Geese from the Dam at Pothole’s Reservoir. We first saw a white sheen on the lake, and thought it was an unusually bright sun reflection.

We realized it was a gigantic flock of snow geese, estimated at >20,000 birds, with at least 3 “Blue Goose” morphs, and one FOY Greater White-fronted Goose in the flock.

From here it was pretty much a drive home, with a pleasant surprise of a FOY Long-billed Curlew flying across the road that I spotted as Ken and Bruce were distracted, but they ID’ed correctly and we turned around to relocate the bird not too far from the road.

We made another stop to try for the previously missed Vesper Sparrow and Loggerhead Shrike off Old Vantage Hwy, but no luck and we got home safely about 7 PM.
A good day of birding with for me 14 FOY Washington State birds, a few less for Ken and Bruce who have been away from WA less than me. Always good to go birding with friends.
Here is the e-Bird trip list.