Subject: Selkirk Mountains Trip
Date: Oct 14 03:06:38 1997
From: MarkJHoust at aol.com - MarkJHoust at aol.com


Tweeters:

I joined up with Ken Knittle and Patrick Sullivan on part of their weekend
excursion and we saw some good stuff in the mountains north of Spokane.
Saturday we drove up Calispell Peak between the Colville and Pend Oreille
River Valleys to a point near the top where the snow was getting pretty deep.
This mountain is over 6800 feet high. In the subalpline fir on the east
flank of the mountain a BOREAL OWL responded to our tape playing with a sharp
downward slurred whistle. I'm not sure if this is the 'skew' call. It was
very close but the only look we got was when Patrick saw it for a moment
crossing the road.

Sunday morning we had a PACIFIC LOON on Sullivan Lake; rather uncommon but
not completely unexpected. GOLDEN EAGLES and other raptors were soaring by
the ridges several thousand feet above us in the brilliant light. We saw
three immature and two adult eagles. The air was crystalline clear and we
couldn't resist the opportunity to get up into the high country again on such
a gorgeous day. The road to Salmo Pass in the extreme corner of the state
had snow on it for only the last couple of miles and it was an easy drive to
the top. About a half mile from the pass were a small flock of BOREAL
CHICKADEES at a wide spot in the road where they often occur. There was also
a PINE GROSBEAK at this spot. At the end of the road there was about ten
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, including males, females, and immatures. They were
on some bare ground in the cover of a rock for a while, and were easily
approached. Later in the day in the mountains northwest of Ione a lone
LAPLAND LONGSPUR flew up from the road.

It was interesting to read Libor Michalak's (sp?) report of what he saw in
the Creston Valley a short distance north of where we were. We looked for
White-fronted Geese and Snow Geese in the Pend Oreille Valley but couldn't
find any.

Mark Houston
Creston, WA/ Spokane