Subject: Adams/Lincoln County BBS Route
Date: Jun 10 13:13:23 1999
From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

Monday, I took the day off from work and ran the "Keystone" Breeding
Bird Survey route, over east of Ritzville.

BBS routes are run by doing 3-minute counts of all birds seen & heard,
driving 1/2 mile to the next stop, counting, and doing it all again until
50 roadside stops have been completed. The count starts *early*
(4:26 a.m.) and finishes up about 9am.

My route starts at Cow Lake, about 10 miles east of town, then winds
north through the wheat and rangelands to just south of Harrington.
For the past 6 years, I'd noted good numbers of 'grassland' sparrows -
W Meadowlarks, savannah and grasshopper sparrows, and such
because of all the "Conservation Reserve Program" plantings. CRP
was the USDA program that paid farmers to not farm 'highly erodable'
lands, but to rather plant it with grasses, shrubs, etc. for 10 years.

Now, 11 years into the program, the first of the CRP lands are being
broken out and put back into wheat. The "new" CRP program requires
that the farmer uses "native" grasses and shrubs, whereas the 'old'
program would allow the farmers to just plant the ground to exotic
species like crested or tall wheatgrass or whatever. A noble idea, to
require native species and 'structure' from shrubs. But, the native
species costs too much and no one wants to plant their fields to sage
brush when they might want to farm it again in 10 years. So! They're
breaking the grassland out that supported the grasshopper sparrows,
meadowlarks and short-eared owls. They'll put in wheat at $2.59/bu.
and the fallow fields will support nothing but a few horned larks. And,
our agency's ideas of Improving Habitat will have come to naught....

Now that I've ranted and raved, I saw/heard:

Green-winged Teal 2 at 1 stop
Cinnamon Teal 2 at 1 stop
Gadwall 9 at 5 stops
Mallard 6 at 5 stops
American Wigeon 1 at 1 stop
Shoveler 2 at 1 stop
Redhead 4 at 1 stop
N Harrier 4 at 4 stops
Red-tailed Hawk 9 at 5 stops
Swainson's Hawk 3 at 3 stops
One bird was on a nest in a locust tree along the road
American Kestrel 4 at 4 stops
Ring-necked Pheasant 23 at 18 stops
Chukar 1 at 1 stop
Spotted Sandpiper 1 at 1 stop
Killdeer 12 at 7 stops
Ring-billed Gull 36 at 14 stops
California Gull 5 at 3 stops
Gull sp. 5 at 2 stops
Mourning Dove 1 at 1 stop
Rock Dove 60 at 8 stops
Short-eared Owl 1 at 1 stop
Great Horned Owl 1 at 1 stop
This count did not include the downy young at the nest
in a willow tree along Lord's Creek
Common Nighthawk 2 at 1 stop
Willow Flycatcher 2 at 1 stop along Lords Cr.
Western Kingbird 5 at 4 stops
Eastern Kingbird 1 at 1 stop
Say's Phoebe 6 at 3 stops
Red-shafted Flicker 1 at 1 stop
Black-billed Magpie 3 at 3 stops
Crow 2 at 1 stop
Raven 9 at 5 stops
Cliff Swallow 88 at 13 stops
Barn Swallow 14 at 8 stops
Bank Swallow 4 at 1 stop
House Wren 2 at 1 stop
Horned Lark 70 at 30 stops
European Starling 28 at 7 stops
American Robin 8 at 8 stops
Brewer's Sparrow 5 at 4 stops
Vesper Sparrow 16 at 12 stops
Lark Sparrow 3 at 3 stops
Savannah Sparrow 71 at 31 stops
Grasshopper Sparrow 16 at 11 stops
Song Sparrow 3 at 2 stops
Red-winged Blackbird 47 at 12 stops
Western Meadowlark 142 at 38 stops
Bullock's Oriole 1 at 1 stop
Yellow-headed Blackbd 64 at 3 stops
Brewer's Blackbird 46 at 20 stops
Brown-headed Cowbird 22 at 11 stops
House Sparrow 4 at 3 stops

Also, I saw (not at the stops during the 3-minute counts) Caspian Tern,
Great Blue Heron, House Finch, and Tree Swallow. Didn't see any
Gray "Hun" Partridges, or the White Pelicans and Western Grebes
at Cow Lake, that've been there the past few years.

En route to and from, there were Ospreys along the Yakima River,
and Western Bluebirds, Wood Ducks, and White-crowned Sparrows
at the Indian Joe/Jim Hill Rest Area between E-burg and Cle Elum.
The white-crowned sparrows were not calling - Are these Pugetensis
white-crowns or Gambel's?? .

Not bad for a morning's point-counting.... For me, who loves to sleep
in, it's wonderful to be up in the coming dawn, watching the moon and
stars fade from the sky, the sun rise, hear the coyotes howl and watch
the mule deer go off to their beds. Well worth taking a day off from
the office!

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net