I was as amazed by Common Goldeneyes on Soap Lake as Dennis is. I identified
the hen on head and bill shape. After one sees a few thousand Barrow's,
Common's are quite readily distinguished on head structure alone. At a
distance they can be tricky, but this bird was up close and personal. I am
fully aware of the status as a rare nester in WA.
Big Meadow Lake in the NE corner seems a good spoy in recent years - both
species of goldeneye breed there + Bufflehead, another very rare nester! At
least every time I've been. Gene Hune (I believe) and George Gerdts have
also seen all three at Big Meadow Lake, all entering holes in trees, or at
least with broods on the water. One year, the Common Goldeneye entered a
hole 15' above that being occupied by a hen Bufflehead!
The most surprising Common Goldenerye "nest" I've come across is the one on
the multitude of old pilings at Usk in Pend Oreille County. An amazing
place. Last year I counted 25 Osprey nests from the bridge over the river at
Usk. This seems extraordinary. Surely it is the greatest concentration of
nesting Ospreys on the west coast?

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA

>On Sat, 29 Jun 1996, Dennis Paulson wrote:
>> common goldeneyes are quite rare breeders in the state, and ...
>> habitats within that zone. A breeding common was reported from Soap Lake,
>> Okanogan Co., a few years ago, and I remember thinking "a lake in the
>> middle of sagebrush is such unusual habitat for Barrow's, maybe it *was* a
>> common." Well, I visited that lake last weekend and saw a number of female
>> Barrow's and no commons on it. Bear in mind that female Barrow's don't
>
>Not ignoring Dennis' excellent discussion on the importance of documenting
>your sightings...
>
>Just to clear up this little controversy, I checked the BBA card just now
>for that block. June 23, 1991, Andy Stepniewski recorded a brood of
>Commons at this lake. It should also be noted that there are *two* Soap
>Lakes in Washington, one in Okanogan Co. (T32R25ESE), and one in Grant
>County. Andy's brood was in the Okanogan Co. Soap Lake. Aside from that
>site, I have only six other locations in the state where this species has
>bred in recent years:
>
>Deep Lake (Stevens Co.) 1993
>Conners Lake (Okanogan Co.) 1992
>Big Meadow Lake (Pend Oreille Co.) multiple years, including 1996
>Lake Beth (Okanogan) 1991
>Little Beaver Lake (Okanogan) 1996
>Bayley Lake (Stevens) 1996
>
>I did make a point of checking up on the ID of the 1996 citings I listed.
>
>I was fascinated by the Scaled Quail report - surely a new release by
>either a private individual or WDFW.
>
>-------------
>Michael R. Smith
>Univ. of Washington, Seattle
>whimbrel at u.washington.edu
>http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html
>
>