Hi folks,

It's a bit late for this report, but back on Sunday June 4th, I 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.
There's a good mix of sagebrush/cheatgrass biscuit-and-scab (the
'pimpled prairies of the east side - just like the Mima Mounds) in with
the ag lands on this route.

For the past 7 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. The
program was over for a lot of these acres, and they didn't all get
signed into the new program a year or two ago....

Now, 12 years into the program, the first of the CRP lands are being
broken out and put back into wheat. I noted a number of fields had
been sod-busted, and I counted considerably fewer Grasshopper
Sparrows and saw no short-eared owls this year. It's a shame to lose
this habitat, as they'll put in wheat at $2.59/bu. and the fallow fields will
support nothing but a few horned larks. And, our chances of Improving
Habitat will have come to naught....

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

Canada Goose 2 at 1 stop
Bl-wg/Cinn Teal 6 at 1 stop
Gadwall 3 at 2 stops
Mallard 3 at 1 stop
American Wigeon 4 at 1 stop
N Harrier 9 at 9 stops
Red-tailed Hawk 5 at 3 stops
Swainson's Hawk 5 at 5 stops
One bird was on a nest in a locust tree along the road
American Kestrel 4 at 4 stops
Ring-necked Pheasant 37 at 27 stops
Coot 3 at 2 stops
Killdeer 10 at 6 stops
Long-billed Curlew 4 at 3 stops
Ring-billed Gull 98 at 25 stops
Caspian Tern 3 at 1 stop
Mourning Dove 12 at 7 stops
Rock Dove 63 at 3 stops
Great Horned Owl 1 at 1 stop - in an old barn
Common Nighthawk 8 at 7 stops
Willow Flycatcher 2 at 2 stops at Crab & Lords Creeks.
Western Kingbird 12 at 9 stops
Eastern Kingbird 5 at 4 stops
Say's Phoebe 1 at 1 stop
Red-shafted Flicker 1 at 1 stop
Black-billed Magpie 4 at 3 stops
Crow 12 at 7 stops
Raven 3 at 3 stops
Cliff Swallow 116 at 16 stops
Barn Swallow 18 at 8 stops
Bank Swallow 9 at 3 stops
House Wren 1 at 1 stop
Horned Lark 136 at 40 stops
European Starling 30 at 10 stops
Sage Thrasher 1 at 1 stop
American Robin 9 at 5 stops
Yellow Warbler 1 at 1 stop
American Goldfinch 2 at 1 stop
Brewer's Sparrow 3 at 3 stops
Vesper Sparrow 29 at 17 stops
Savannah Sparrow 108 at 34 stops
Grasshopper Sparrow 5 at 5 stops
Song Sparrow 1 at 1 stop
Red-winged Blackbird 48 at 9 stops
Western Meadowlark 151 at 41 stops
Bullock's Oriole 1 at 1 stop
Yellow-headed Blackbd 15 at 6 stops
Brewer's Blackbird 35 at 8 stops
Brown-headed Cowbird 26 at 17 stops
House Sparrow 1 at 1 stop

Also, I saw (not at the stops during the 3-minute counts) Great Blue
Heron, House Finch, and a Violet-green Swallow. Didn't see any
Gray "Hun" Partridges, or the Spotted Sandpipers,White Pelicans
and Western Grebes at Cow Lake, that've been there the past few
years. I also missed the short-eared owls.

En route to the Ritzville area the day before (June 3rd), I stopped at
the 'Shrag' Rest Area on I-90 about 23 miles west of Ritzville. This is
an oasis of planted sycamore and juniper trees, bushes, and irrigated
lawn in the middle of wheat and fallow fields as far as the eye can see.
There were a few species I hadn't expected out in the wild wheatlands
of Adams County - Warbling Vireo, Black-headed Grosbeak and
Swainson's Thrush! Also Mourning Dove, Cowbird, Brewer's Blackbird,
Robins and House Sparrows feeding new fledglings.

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 stars fade
from the sky, the sun rise, hear the coyotes howl and watch the mule
deer go off to their beds while smelling the sage in the breeze.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net