Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar and I met at 6 AM yesterday to go on our more-or-less annual pilgramage to see our FOY birds that are most easily seen in eastern WA. I chose this day because we could all go, and because the weather looked promising. As we got over the Cascades about 7:30 it was clear that the weather was going to cooperate, and as we got to our first stop for sage species though still chilly, there was almost no wind (rare for this wind-farm area) and the sun warmed things up. Sage Thrashers were singing in all directions, and we also added the expected Brewer’s Sparrow and hoped for Vesper Sparrow both singing and perching in view for us.

One of the cool things about birding in the spring in wide open areas is that the birds there have big loud songs. At our next stop, the Wild Horse Puget Sound Wind Farm HQ, Sagebrush Sparrow was no exception, as were Mountain Bluebirds, Say’s Phoebe and more thrashers and Brewer’s Sparrows.

From here we worked our way along the Old Vantage Hwy to Vantage. Along the way we stopped to see the Great Horned Owl on a nest at a cliffside area, and then on to the Gingko boat ramp, where Rock Wrens were singing, but we missed Canyon Wren.
From here we headed to the County Line Ponds. At County Line Ponds the American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts were easily seen, but the highlights for us were large flocks of Sandhill Cranes calling and flying overhead, an immature Golden Eagle on a utility pole, singing Horned Lark, and great studies, thanks to Ken’s expertise, of the Gambellii subspecies of White-crowned Sparrow.

From hgere on to Othello, where very few blackbirds were to be found, though we added Yellow-headed Blackbird we dipped on Tricolored. FOY Cliff Swallows, that nest in numbers under bridge there were FOY for all of us, and we looked over the vast flocks of Cackling Geese, finding one Greater White-fronted but no rarities. Shorebirds were overall absent. (Killdeer and Black-necked Stilts were there).
We enjoyed the weather, the Mariner’s game on Ken’s phone, and our company as we crossed the Columbia NWR to the Moses Lake area for FOY Clark’s Grebe before heading home. On any trip there are some cool finds.

When the Mariner’s saved their terrible road trip from total disaster with a 10 inning 6-1 win our smiles were cemented for the ride home.
I think Bruce and Ken both had 15+ FOY species for the trip (I went to Yakima last month, so had a few of these) and one more great day birdng with friends is in the book.