I made a quick visit to Mann Lake, Nez Perce County, Idaho, on
Thursday, November 5, 1998, from 1530 to 1630 PST. The weather was
overcast, raining, light breezes, low light (sunset was around 1645 PST) and
about 45F. The water level is still very low and they were still working on
the dam using a bunch of heavy equipment. A couple of hardy souls were
flying their RC aircraft at the RC airfield.
There were still two LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS feeding at the side of the
lake. Last week, there were no Killdeers at the lake; this week, there was
at least fifty. The gulls were really boring; just Ring-billed Gulls.
As usual for November, the real show was the waterfowl. There were
thousands of ducks and geese. I was disappointed to find that almost all of
them were Canada Geese and Mallards. But I did find some other good birds.
Two TUNDRA SWANS were feeding at the very back of the reservoir. A single
ROSS GOOSE was standing with a bunch of Canada Geese on the shore below the
old, green outhouse. There was an immature GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
mixed in with the Canada Geese. Despite the low light, I could see that its
bill was pinkish rather than orange. It was much smaller than the
surrounding Canada Geese and the white on the underside extended from the
tail to the area around the legs. The neck was much shorter than the Canada
Geese and the head was small. These field marks, to me, suggested it was a
Greater White-fronted Geese rather than a Graylag/ domestic which I have
seen there before. (There is a large flock of Greylags in the levy ponds in
downtown Lewiston.) The chest was very pale and not barred and there was
no white behind the bill suggesting an immature Greater White-fronted
instead of an adult.
The other waterfowl I saw were: six male and one female Canvasbacks, one
male Hooded Merganser, several eclipse plumage Ruddy Ducks, two Green-winged
Teals, several American Wigeons, three Lesser Scaups, a few Ring-necked
Ducks, about twenty female and at least two male Northern Pintails, about
fifty Buffleheads.
I saw several non-waterfowl species: one Great Blue Heron, one Belted
Kingfisher (fishing from old Christmas trees thrown in the reservoir as fish
habitat and now exposed by low water levels), about thirty Western Grebes,
two American Coots, and two AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS (feeding in the weeds
just below the old green outhouse), a large flock of Mourning Doves near the
grain silos.
Just as we were leaving, the waterfowl began flying up from the
reservoir into the surrounding fields. The sound of the geese flying low
over our car was amazing!

Deborah K. Beutler
Dept. Zoology
Washington State University
Pullman, Whitman Co., WA

dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu