On my way home from Spokane this afternoon I detoured to Reardan and Atkins
Lake (about six miles west of the Dry Falls Dam along Highway 2) to check
out the shorebirds. The water at both places is still quite high but there
were shorebirds present.

At Reardan the shorebirds were spread out amongst the marsh grasses and for
the most part difficult to see. A harrier swooped over the marsh once and
flushed well over 100 shorebirds. From the road I was able to peer through
the grasses and find the birds but the best looks I got were from a gravel
road on the south side of the ponds that goes two blocks to the west of the
main north/south road. To the north of the gravel road are several small
muddy areas with quite a few shorebirds on them. The list for Reardan:

Killdeer - 100+
Greater Yellowlegs - 5
Lesser Yellowlegs - 6
Solitary Sandpiper - 8
Western Sandpiper - 16
Least Sandpiper - 5
Pectoral Sandpiper - 1
Long-billed Dowitcher - 6
Common Snipe - 40+
Wilson's Phalarope - 1
also, Black Tern - 70+

At Atkins Lake, the water was right up to the road that divides the lake but
there is a little mud on each side that the shorebirds found to their liking.

Greater Yellowlegs - 10
Western Sandpiper - 9
Short-billed Dowitcher - 8
Long-billed Dowitcher - 1
also, Caspian Tern - 1

There were also many ducks and coots at both places and at Reardan quite a
few Eared Grebes including one with two little ones on its back.

The weather at both places was darn hot, real hot. The only wind was at
Reardan and came from cars zipping past.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA