[Tweeters] Columbia County 6/2

[Tim Brennan via Tweeters]

Howdy!

I made a quick one day run over to Columbia County to try my luck on some higher elevation birds for my Columbia year list. I started the day up on Jasper Mountain, where I got my only owl of the day - Great Horned - three new flycatchers for the year (Dusky, Olive-sided, and Willow), and two new thrushes (Hermit and Swainson's).

Down to Dayton, and then up North Touchet Road. It was a good warbler day in general - Orange-crowned, MacGillivray's, Yellow, Yellow-rumped and Townsend's were heard and seen at many stops. This was also the only place I have had Wilson's Warblers (at least three of them at the Middle Point Trailhead), and the entrance to Bluewood had Varied Thrush and Pacific Wren. I also had Ruffed Grouse drumming at multiple stops, as well as Veery singing.

Down to Dayton, and then up Eckler Mountain Road, which becomes Kendall Skyline Road. This was such a gorgeous drive! I picked up Calliope Hummingbird, Nashville Warbler, as well as Green-tailed Towhee, a tough one in the county! Near Godman CG, I had Williamson's and Red-naped Sapsuckers.

It's been fun to take all of these different roads up into the Blues! The views were stunning, and there were lots of other things to see, including wildflowers and ground squirrels (so many ground squirrels).

The additions today have put me at 145 for the year in Columbia (I think. . . But I'm still bleary from a long drive back!).

My Walla Walla and Columbia County Birding blog had been neglected for a while! But there are three posts up now for March:
https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-24th-spring-ish-in-walla-walla.html
https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-25th-water-please.html
https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-26th-kendall-skyline-road.html

No April trip, but there will be posts to cover my May and June trips soon! There are two other birders who have been giving Columbia a lot of attention this year too, so there are plenty of eBird reports out there with breadcrumbs for you to follow as well.

Cheers,

Tim Brennan
Renton
[https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG686TNeEbvIsMS2jJYp1ZJlg_CmS2BLzUa9SmN0V7PfeHx4Za7VdrDVfiEprD8aCYbXC95hHxWiE2fovjd6zOg6lx8iDoL7hmKhHoyd1mHqztBsakUjmuEo24oZ5il-26GWkzrn7D34BWYi2r8p3HOSahmD86K3WDjbdFJiEJPD6rzdxiHsfuMTKxg1ip/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/DSC_0215.JPG]<https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-26th-kendall-skyline-road.html>
Walla Walla-Columbia Birding: March 26th - Kendall Skyline Road<https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-26th-kendall-skyline-road.html>
Up, and up, and I passed a parking lot on the left (you can see it in the images above, near the end of the line for me). I finally got to a point where a sign informed me that my car really shouldn't continue.
wwccountybirding.blogspot.com


[https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUTaM8i_LWP_lB0hxrAn8JemjwF9s1zAT0AZppG6hbAAm08puSLHE7RWoInIXbw-CzhXpMz1BVC_rIK0uPciwTIyhAmZB6Mk47UL7atIeiofmwGbqd1B6BIjNbO3OMhyphenhyphenVZmVVOmmGnNd7BI6L6glphE6Kyle3nIE2V6pthrO3pzinhvaFQALl-dknykcW/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/DSC_0361.JPG]<https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-25th-water-please.html>
Walla Walla-Columbia Birding: March 25th - Water, Please!<https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-25th-water-please.html>
75. I woke up in Dayton. 75 species under my belt for the Walla Walla year. Here in Columbia County, my January and February trips had brought me to 75.
wwccountybirding.blogspot.com



[https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaxxaKD7FVB2pzKRY3bMHB-HQfU7Eo6LzpTpNqBfXaZ3-o47nyAchv_uesNR0Bi46TP9co9AXR1my7jAofGewCitpwqnaZXkYzOclSIXYzXNGXqmx7bm4XYL16FAbPY970TER9n9OhyWREswyt4CYmWLv6LX0ZR2dwO68AjX-5ToySVMMJIudrN2c3mlBR/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/DSC_0292.JPG]<https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-24th-spring-ish-in-walla-walla.html>
March 24th - Spring-ish in Walla Walla County<https://wwccountybirding.blogspot.com/2025/05/march-24th-spring-ish-in-walla-walla.html>
Burbank Slough was quite full of waterfowl, these geese aside. Canada Geese in fairly small numbers, and Snow Geese by the hundreds. I settled on 800 for the eBird report. . . but I think the accuracy of this estimate decreased every time I skimmed through and looked at each goose.
wwccountybirding.blogspot.com

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