Hello Tweets,

Ken Knittle and I started out on Sat. Oct. 11th by birding at Lk. Chelan
near Chelan, where we observed
16 Surf Scoters in one large flock, and one additional bird was further up
the lake. We birded several
other spots heading east through Okanogan, Grant, and Douglas Cos., but did
not turn up any quality
finds until we met Mark Houston near Creston, who we planned to bird with
the better part of the weekend.
He was unable to join us at that time, but would plan to meet us later that
evening in near Calispell Pk.
to try for Boreal Owl. While briefly visiting with Mark, he told us about
an Am. Golden Plover and 2 B.B.
Plovers that he observed two days prior at Swanson Lakes, south of Creston.
Ken and I then travelled
to the location and observed the Am. Golden Plover, 3 B.B. Plovers, and 1
late Semi. Plover. We then
headed north to Sportsman's Pond along Tacoma Creek Rd. in Pend Orielle
Co., where we met Mark
at 5pm, and then travelled west towards the peak using both of our
vehicles, encountering several inches
of snow near the top, where 4 wheel drive was used until we could not drive
any further. We then proceed-
ed back on Tacoma Creek Rd., which was quite muddy in some spots with snow
in places on the road
until we got into appropriate habitat for Boreal Owl, which was several
good stands of Sub-alpine Fir, just down from our turn-around spot. We
tried in several places along the road from 7pm, until Ken heard a
Boreal Owl, while Mark and I returned to our vehicles, after leaving Ken
down the road from which we had
all tried less than 5 minutes earlier. When Mark and I arrived at the
location, I observed the bird briefly
in my flashlight, flying across the narrow road, but was not seen again,
only heard briefly approximetly
1 min. from my observation. We then continued down the road, where we also
heard a Saw-whet Owl
much lower in elevation than the Boreal Owl. We camped that night along the
road in a small,primitive
campsite near Tacoma Creek, then birded the next day in mainly all in Pend
Orielle Co., where we
observed a Pacific Loon on Sullivan Lk.and 3 Golden Eagles flying high over
Noisy Creek campground.
The weather looked promising, so we travelled up to Salmo Pass, we saw 10+
W.W. Crossbills, several
Boreal Chickadees, and one Pine Grosbeak. Later that morning, we birded
Mill Pond and observed 2
more Golden Eagles and 1 Osprey flying high to the NE. Later that
afternoon, we observed 1 Lapland
Longspur north of Smackout Pass along Jim Creek Rd., which surprised us
all. The Pacific Loon would
possibly represent the first county record for PO Co., and the longspur has
been seen less than 5 times
in that county. On Oct. 13th Ken and I birded with Mark in Spokane
Co.,until 10am, then proceeded on
our own at several locations towards home including Sprague Lake on the
Adams Co. side, where we
saw up to 14 Surf Scoters and 1 W.W. Scoter. Continuing noth and west, we
stopped near Stratford
in Grant Co., where 1 Snow Goose was noted in a flock of several hundred
Canada Geese. Our final
stop was at Atkins Lk. in Douglas Co, where 20 Tundra Swans and 1
Boneaparte's Gull were noted.


Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net