Bird Watching in Grant County
May 31, 2006
For More Press Information:
Phone: 509.921.5579
Email: billme123@comcast.net
Web: http://www.tourgrantcounty.com
According to the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment, Birding is the fastest growing outdoor recreation in the country. The Central Basin Audubon Society has worked for several years to identify the best birding sites locally in preparation for the Coulee Corridor Birding Trail Map, which has just been made available. This is only the second map of its kind completed for the state of Washington. Using this map, birders will be able to find the best birding locations in this area. It will also assist them to find rare birds to tick off their life lists. Additionally, amenities such as interpretive centers, campgrounds, rest rooms and other features are listed. The Central Basin Audubon Society has local birding information at www.cbas.org.
The Coulee Corridor is now a designated State Scenic Byway working on becoming a national route as well, extending from Othello in the south to Coulee Dam in the north, traveling along highways 17 and 155 with some side routes. This nature-based guided tour map highlights the natural habitats, geologic features, wildlife view areas and Great Missoula Floods stories.
The Coulee Corridor map is now available for free. To request one send an email to info@cbas.org or send a note to CBAS at PO Box 86, Moses Lake, WA 98837 or you may call (509) 766-0101 or (866) 922-4737. Also see their website at www.cbas.org.
There is also a CBSA outing every month open to the public. In 2004 there already is planned Grant County Shorebirds in September and Coulee Corridor North in November. Call Doug Schonewald at (509) 766-0056 after 6PM for information.
Grand Coulee Dam hosts the Balde Eagle Festival the second weekend of February featuring bus tours to bald eagle nest sites and much more. For information call (509) 633-3074.
Grant County is located directly in the path of the Pacific Flyway, the migratory path for countless waterfowl. With the abundance of water and habitat, the Moses Lake area is home to a diverse and abundant bird population. Nearby Columbia National Wildlife Refuge is a scenic mixture of rugged cliffs, canyons, lakes, marshes, and arid sagebrush grasslands. The favorable mixture of lakes and surrounding irrigated croplands, mild winters and the refuge protection, attracts peaks of over 150,000 migrating and wintering mallard ducks, Canada geese, and other waterfowl, including tundra swans. In the spring and fall large numbers of Sandhill Cranes use the area as a resting stop on their migratory journeys. The refuge has had over 200 different bird species observed. Hawks, owls, raven and cliff swallows can be observed in the cliff areas. Local wetlands provide shelter to herons, American avocets and other shorebirds. Pheasants, quail and magpies are found in the upland areas. When spring moisture is sufficient, refuge uplands bloom with a multitude of wildflowers.
Wildlife viewers can check out the bird life at Grant County's Sun Lakes Wildlife Area, one of several in the Columbia Basin used by millions of waterfowl, raptors, songbirds, and others for resting and feeding on their annual migrations along the Pacific Flyway. You'll see Canada geese, mallards, redheads, canvasbacks, ringnecks, ruddy ducks, gadwalls, blue and greenwing teal, shovelers, pintails, goldeneyes, and wood ducks. Shorebirds, terns, pelicans, sandhill cranes, swans, gulls, Brewer's, red-winged, and yellow-headed blackbirds, killdeer, meadowlarks, prairie falcons, red-tailed and Swainson's hawks, golden eagles, and colonies of burrowing owls may also be found. Bald Eagles and Perigon Falcons are sometimes seen.
Potholes Reservoir is a wonderful viewing area for migratory waterfowl including Sandhill Cranes. At Mar Don Resort, you can arrange a guided bird watching tour on an Everglades type airboat. Call 800-416-2736 or visit http://www.mardonresort.com/.
The Othello Sandhill Crane Festival will be held March 26, 27 and 28 in 2004. The Festival has many tours for crane viewing along with specialty tours. Specialty tours have included Columbia National Wildlife Refuge/Potholes area wildlife tour, Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scablands geology tour, Sage Grouse Lake tour, Lower Grand Coulee birding tour and Wahluke Slope/Shrub Steppe birding tour. There are free lectures repaeated throughout the day. Pre-registration is suggested to reserve your seat as some fill up quickly.
For more Festival information please call 509-488-2802 extension 100 or visit the website at http://www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org/
The undeveloped land and protected semiarid areas of the Hanford Reach provides nest sites and food for three species of migratory buteo hawks: Swainson's, red-tailed, and ferruginous. Over 238 bird species have been documented on the Reach. The large tracts of untouched mature sage brush and bunchgrass, becoming rarer, have proved to be a life saving habitat for many species.
The Reach includes 50 miles of protected Columbia River habitat. Riverine habitat along the Hanford Reach is used extensively by wintering waterfowl and the island habitats for nesting. Great blue herons, great egrets, black-crowned night-herons, and other water-related birds have also been noted using the river corridor and islands. Double crested cormorants, American white pelicans also are seen here.
Hanford Reach information of birding is at http://hanfordreach.fws.gov/birds.html
Grant County, with its huge tracts of protected wildlife areas, is one of the great birding areas left in America.
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