On June 6, I ran a BBS route east of Ritzville. These routes have the
observer count all birds seen/heard during a 3-minute stop, every 1/2
mile along a 25-mile route.

This route runs from Cow Lake, 10 miles E of Ritzville, Adams County,
past Keystone (a railroad siding and grain tower),
north across Crab Creek and up along Lords Creek to within 4 miles SE of
Harrington, Lincoln Co, Washington. I started at 4:26 a.m. and ended at
8:55 a.m.

Weather was 45 degrees F, a bit breezy (not unusual for the Palouse),
and overcast; the wind was up to 15 mph at the start & slacked off. I
feel I may have missed some species (Say's phoebe, Raven, W Wood-pewee,
Empids?) due to a rain that began falling 3/4 way through the count. A
lot of birds I thought I'd see near a couple ranch buildings/trees and at
Crab and Lords creeks weren't evident. Numbers were probably down for
the latter part of the count also. But, it was the only day I could get
to run the route....

Heard/Seen along the "Keystone" BBS route:

Number # Stops
Black-crowned Night Heron 2 1
Mallard 8 5
Blue-winged Teal 2 1
Gadwall 2 1
Redhead 3 1
Northern Harrier 2 1
Swainson's Hawk 7 4
Red-tailed Hawk 6 4
Kestrel 1 1
Ring-necked Pheasant 7 7
American Coot 2 1
Long-billed Curlew 1 1
Ring-billed Gull 19 6
California Gull 114 21
Rock Dove 9 2
Mourning Dove 1 1
Red-shafted Flicker 1 1
Western Kingbird 4 3
Eastern Kingbird 4 3
Horned Lark 91 32
Cliff Swallow 16 5
Barn Swallow 3 2
Magpie 5 2
American Crow 1 1
Marsh Wren 2 1
American Robin 3 3
European Starling 14 5
Common Yellowthroat 1 1
Vesper Sparrow 11 8
Savannah Sparrow 53 24
Grasshopper Sparrow 13 9
Song Sparrow 1 1
Red-winged Blackbird 61 12
Yellow-headed Blackbird 45 2
Brewer's Blackbird 37 7
Western Meadowlark 134 41
Brown-headed Cowbird 21 10
American Goldfinch 2 1
House Sparrow 29 3