Subject: Birding at Banks, Soap, Sun, etc. Lakes near Coulee City
Date: Apr 9 07:42:34 2000
From: Joanne H. Powell - jhpowell at iea.com


Hi, all:

This message is probably of more interest to the Inland Northwest List but,
in case any west-siders were interested in coming over to this area to bird
in the near future, the location of most of these lakes is on pages 69, 70
of DeLormes.

Yesterday, Joyce Alonso and I took an all-day trip to the lakes around
Coulee City. I had never been there so this was a chance for me to see the
birds of that area in Spring. The weather was really REALLY cold in the
early morning hours but warmed up to what felt like the 70s in the
afternoon. Blue skies and the sun shining all day - what a beautiful day for
birding! The list that follows has ALL the birds we saw, even the "trash"
birds. Seeing the black-crowned night herons fly by about 20' from me was
really neat. I also got my first really good look at white-throated swifts;
before they were just black "swooshes" in the sky that other people TOLD me
were white-throated swifts! It was great seeing the yellow-headed
blackbirds; they are one of my favorite birds. Also, my first "up close and
personal" look at a Savannah Sparrow singing its heart out. Here's the list
for anyone interested.

American Avocets
Black-crowned Night Herons
Black-necked Stilts
Brewer?s Blackbirds
Buffleheads
California Quail (heard)
Canada Geese
Caspian Terns
Common Goldeneyes
Common Loons
Comorant
Coots
Eared Grebes
Gadwalls
Great Blue Herons
Greater Yellowlegs
Green-winged Teal
Horned Larks
House Finches
House Sparrows
Kestral
Killdeer
Magpies
Mallards
Meadowlarks (by the gazillion)
Mourning Doves
Northern Flickers
Northern Harriers
Northern Shovelers
Pintails
Ravens
Red-breasted Merganser
Redheads
Red-tailed Hawks
Red-winged Blackbirds
Ring-billed Gulls
Ring-necked Pheasant (hens)
Rock Doves
Rough-leggged Hawks
Ruby-crowned Kinglets
Ruddy Ducks
Savannah Sparrow
Say?s Phoebes
Scaup (sp?)
Song Sparrows
Starlings
VG Swallows
White-throated Swifts
Widgeons
Yellow-headed Blackbirds

All in all, it was a great birding day.

Regards, Joanne
Reardan (Spokane) WA
mailto: jhpowell at iea.com