Waterfowl/Raptor Field Trip

Eighteen of us met at Harper Joy Theater this morning to spend the day looking for birds. The forecast was for rain, but fortunately we had none.  However, there is always a trade-off, and today it was wind, and then smoke.  Trying to hold on to scopes on the Columbia River proved to be a real challenge, but we still managed to find 20 species of waterfowl.  Highlights were several thousand SNOW GEESE, over 300 WHITE-FRONTED GEESE and thousands of CANADA GEESE flying all over McNary NWR.  We only saw four BALD EAGLES along the route, but did find two GREAT HORNED OWLS.  We looked for raptors on the way to the river along Sudbury Road and Dry Creek Road.  There were numerous RED-TAILED HAWKS and AMERICAN KESTRELS, several NORTHERN HARRIERS, a PRAIRIE FALCON and a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK.  A COOPER'S HAWK at McNary Headquarters brought out raptor species count up to six.  We planned to look for more raptors on the return trip to Walla Walla, but encountered farmers in the process of burning their fields.  Needless to say, it didn't make for good birding conditions.  Our species count for the day was 40 – not bad considering the conditions. Ginger