On Sat, 23 Aug 1997, Mark Egger wrote:

> The Spokane prairies were a rather specialized and unique habitat
> that is now lost to Spokane sprawl and, perhaps even more destructive,
> to an overwhelming influx of particularly loathesome exotic weeds.

Well, I would certainly would have liked to have had a description of this
"rather specialized and unique habitat". Dr. Irven Buss, who had
studied Upland Sandpipers in other parts of their breeding range,
found the east Spokane Valley habitat rather uninspiring. In fact,
he could not understand what the birds saw in the place. His writings
on the dry, stony ground where the sandpipers hung out was written in
1979, before your observations of the unique and specialized qualities.
Frankly, I think humans tend to remember things lost as more special
than they really were.

I also stand in awe at Kelly Cassidy's speculation that Upland Sandpipers
stalked the Palouse prior to its conversion to wheatland. There is no
documentation of Upland Sandpipers in this region and their general
rarity in all places west of the Rockies makes at a rather grand
supposition. But, when stated as fact it adds so much to our
never-ending thirst for reasons to believe that we humans have
really messed things up.

Kelly McAllister