[Tweeters] Para Ponds Othello

[Bob Flores via Tweeters]

I was there before dark. One snow goose, less than 100 cackles, 2 black-neck stilts, 2 ring-necked ducks, one common goldeneye were the highlights
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On Apr 14, 2025, at 00:51, Hans-Joachim Feddern via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


After the Snow Goose spectacle we stopped at Potholes State Park. There always is a nice variety of birds there, but nothing unusual this time. From there we headed for the Para Ponds in Othello. On the water and on the meadows around the ponds were several thousand Cackling Geese and also some Canada Geese and a single Greater White-fronted Goose. There was a good variety of duck species, but no Redheads and hundreds of American Coots. Also no Black-necked Stilts had come in yet.
Next we stopped at the County Line Ponds on SR 26. I have never seen the main pond on the southside so quiet! There were barely a dozen ducks there and even they were hard to find. The pond on the northside had a pair of Bufflehead and a pair of Green-winged Teal, but also a pair of  Redhead, 7 Black-necked Stilts and a single American Avocet. The last two First-of-Year birds for me.
From there we took B SE road south towards Lower Crab Creek. The hole in the road has been fixed and there are two one lane bridges over the two branches of the creek. A lone male Northern Harrier was patrolling low over the sage brush,  He had to climb to let a circling Red-tailed Hawk  know that he was not invited. While I was watching them I noticed a small group of Canada Geese landing in a field quite distant. But wait, two large birds kept on flying towards me! They had a different wing beat, flapping and gliding almost like a butterfly! A pair of Sandhill Cranes! My lucky day. We did hear some other cranes trumpeting, but could not locate them.

I hope that I have not bored you too much!

Good Birding!

Hans

--
Hans Feddern
Twin Lakes/Federal Way, WA
thefedderns at gmail.com<mailto:thefedderns at gmail.com>
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