Hello Tweeters,
I took onother trip to Eastern Washington.Dates from 9/i to 9/3
Lincoln,Stevens and Pend Oreille driving 850 miles.Basicly i visit Sprague
and Frater Lake, there i supposed to find the Black-tipped Darner (Ashna
tuberculifera). But it wasn't so, with all the Darners i netted and
checked, i came short to finding my last species of Darners. I supposed to
end up in Kettle Falls Ferry County to meet some people i met on the
internet who got interested also to get in to this hobby. But my luck run
out on Frater Lake slipping on the edges of the Lake deep in to the mud. I
was covered from the top to my toes. This reminded me of an Elephant story
on TV where the Elephants looking for Mudholes to cool of. Maybe some one
saw this Nature programm about the survival of this big Mamals and one Lady
try to protect them from Poachers. Anyway this was the final after i
cleaned up on the Lake. I decided to drive home late Friday. If any one of
you drove late evening against a sunset, it was treacherous driving to the
Sun setting down in the west.Comming home the message left by Patrick as it
read: I went to Ocean Shores for two days, looking for the Buff-breasted
Sandpiper and the Ruff.It was already 11.30 PM but i figured to go in the
mornig to find this Birds.
The next morning it was 9.30AM I was already found the Ruff. Never i took
photos after photo at close rage few feet away and this bird stayed and
let me take all the photos i wanted.I took photos in August 24-95 at the
same location, but it too all day and partly the next day to get any
photos, never to close.
So birding is still good and you dont have to go to extremes. This bird
looked all the different than the previous Ruff .For one think he had
extreme long legs, around the lower flanks he had lots of white showing,
which also show in my photos. The BEST showing him(i am almost sure this is
a male) when he fluffed the tail out, never i see this in any photos
published.I did not find the Buff-breasted Sandpiper where already lot's of
birders combed the beaches. I was seeing lot's of birders there comming all
the way even from Walla Walla as Mike Denny and his Wife.I did not due any
other birding that Day feeling that i will be to tired to drive Home.
Here is my list on my species of Dragonflies i found in Eastern Washington.
Canada Darner (Aeshna canadensis)
Lance-tipped Darner (Aeshna constricta)
Lake Darner (Ashna eremita)
Variable Darner (Ashna interrupta)
Paddle-tailed Darner (Aeshna palmata)
Shadow Darner (Ashna umbrosa)
White-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum obtrusum)
Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum)
Twelfe-spotted Skimmer (libellula pulchella)
Western Pondhawk (Erythemis collocata) County record for Lincoln Co.
Spotted Spreadwing (Lestes congener)
Common Spreadwing (Lestes disjunctus)
Lyre-tipped Spreadwing (Lestes unguiculatus)
4 species are not identified ( there are Bluets)

One surprise on road HYW.231 running over the road where 7 Gray Partridge (
a Family
Despite all the bad weather we had this season (there was no Summer) i had
a good and busy time.
Back to normal on Tuesday for my job at the School.

Ruth Sullivan
Tacoma