Tweeters,

In June, Lee Ann Hancock (a temporary field biologist with the Department
of Fish and Wildlife), took me on a tour of historic upland sandpiper nesting
areas in Spokane County. We visited Indian Prairie, the East Farms area, and
the Newman Lake area. These areas all have extensive grassy flats that look
as though they might be attractive to upland sandpipers. The East Farms area
is the area last known to have had nesting birds (in 1987). While housing
developments have taken habitat along the margins, there is still an extensive
undeveloped area that is more or less continuous with the grassy flats near
Rathdrum Idaho, another historic upland sandpiper nesting area. The most
widespread and persistent problem here is spotted knapweed. It is taller
and denser than the vegetation structure preferred by upland sandpipers.

The Indian Prairie and Newman Lake areas did not appear to have a knapweed
problem and I saw a great variety of grassy habitats (both "wild" and
cultivated) that I thought could be suitable for upland sandpipers.

I do not know why upland sandpipers have forsaken the Pacific Northwest as
a breeding place. Apparently, upland sandpipers have declined in Oregon
in recent years as well. I was told that the only upland sandpiper observed
in Oregon during 1995 was a single adult on the Boardman Bombing Range. This
is hard to understand given the 71 upland sandpipers observed as recently as
1987 in Oregon. Lower intensity survey effort and lost access to some private
lands may account for some of this change. However, I cannot help but wonder
if the 1980s were unusual. Perhaps, numbers in Oregon were unusually high
during this period. Certainly most pre-1980 accounts of the bird in Oregon
suggest extreme rarity, almost occasional or accidental status.

It is worth noting that, in the core of the upland sandpiper's range, breeding
bird surveys indicate an increasing population over the past 30 years.

I am hopeful that, in the ebb and flow of this bird's population dynamics,
Washington will once again attract birds to nest. Perhaps, if we maintain
some extensive grasslands, we can maintain a breeding contingent through time
as we did in the 1950s through 1980s at the east Spokane Valley.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife