On Saturday Glenda and I went to the Davenport Cemetery to see the LEAST
FLYCATCHER. We heard it the moment we opened the car doors and then got
to see it soon thereafter. [Thank you, Jerry! That's got to be the
easiest empid I've ever identified - what a distinctive voice. Much
easier than remembering how to pronounce "empidonax" correctly after
having learned it incorrectly first.] ;-)

In route we had a couple of surprises, as indicated in the subject line.
The first was discovering a SAGE THRASHER
on a fence along Tokio Rd. just north of the Lincoln County line (WA
DeLorme page 71, B 6-7) in habitat that I thought would have been more
appropriate for Grasshopper Sparrow. What little sage and rabbit brush
this grassland contained was small and scattered - nothing like the
sweeping stands of Big Sage that one normally thinks of as
SAGE THRASHER habitat.

It was only a few more miles north on Tokio Rd., in an area where the
grass/rangelands were giving way to dry land wheat, that we got our
second surprise when two SHARP-TAILED GROUSE trotted diagonally across
the road in front of us, moving from the grass/rangeland into the
standing wheat! Once again, not exactly the habitat that I'd been led to
believe was typical for this species. We've spent some time in the past
searching "typical habitat" in Lincoln County without turning up a
feather.

Before the morning was over we also managed to find a couple of
CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS on territory along the Centennial Trail east of
Spokane. Together with the LEAST FLYCATCHER and the SHARP-TAILED GROUSE
that made three live birds in Washington in one day - not a trick that's
easy for us to accomplish anymore.
It was a great day to be out in the field!

Dennis K Rockwell
Kennewick, Washington
denniskrockwell at juno.com

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