- RBA

* northern Idaho / eastern Washington / northeastern Oregon
* as above
* December 07, 2001
* IDWA0112.07

- birds mentioned

Black-crowed Night-Heron
Cattle Egret
Eurasian Wigeon
Thayer's Gull
Mew Gull
Gyrfalcon
Prairie Falcon
Merlin
Snowy Owl
Barred Owl
Rusty Blackbird
Tri-colored Blackbird
Lapland Longspur
American Tree Sparrow
Snow Bunting

- transcript

hotline: northern Idaho / eastern Washington / northeastern Oregon
Date: December 07, 2001
Phone: (208) 882-6195
Compiler: Kas Dumroese
Transcriber: Kas Dumroese - dumroese at iglide.net

This is Kas Dumroese with the Northern Idaho / Eastern Washington /
Northeastern Oregon bird hotline for Friday, Dec 07 (2001). This hotline,
sponsored by Palouse Audubon, is updated every Friday evening. Transcripts
of this RBA and membership info are available on-line at
http://www.palouseaudubon.org

If you wish to bypass this recording and simply leave a message for me,
including the date of your sighting and the DeLorme atlas page numbers and
coordinates if you have them, push the star button on your telephone now.
Otherwise wait for the beep at the end of the tape. Please give me good
directions, your fellow birdwatchers will appreciate it.

A SNOWY OWL south of Spokane WA is persisting. Mark Houston and Jeff Brown
report the bird was there on 1 Dec and Jeff Wisman saw it on the 2 Dec. The
bird is south of the south hill. To get to it from I-90, take the Freya exit
in Spokane. Take Freya south to the Palouse Hwy (about 3 miles or so). It
may be marked South Palouse Hwy at that point. Turn left, south, and follow
the Palouse Hwy for about 3 miles. At South Baltimore Road (Hangman Creek
Golf Course) you start downhill. As you emerge from the pines near the
bottom of the hill there will be mown fields. On the left will be lots for
sale with some large new homes. The dirt road at the bottom is Hoffman Lane
(private). These fields are where the owl has been found, both sides of the
Palouse Hwy. WA DeLorme 89, D-5.

Two TRI-COLORED BLACKBIRDS and 2 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS were part of huge flock of
blackbirds near Othello, Adams Co WA on 2 Dec according to Bob Flores. Bob
sorted through the flock of about 20,000 birds at the Para's Feedlot at the
intersection of Reynolds and Hatton roads, a couple of miles southeast of
Othello. Also present was a MERLIN. WA DeLorme 53, B-7.

Heading east from Othello, Adams Co WA along WA 26 at milemarker 50 on 6
Dec, Bob Flores found 700 Horned Larks with 3 LAPLAND LONGSPURS and a single
SNOW BUNTING. Further east on WA 26 at Damon Road (about a mile west of US
395) he found a flock of 250 Horned Larks containing a single LAPLAND
LONGSPUR. WA DeLorme 54, B-2.

A CATTLE EGRET is still residing along Davis Road in the Cascade Valley area
of Moses Lake, Grant Co WA according to Teri Pieper.

Two more CATTLE EGRETS are in Burbank, western Walla Walla Co WA according
to Mike and MerryLynn Denny. These birds are around 523 Basin Drive, south
of Burbank, off of US 12 between Hanson Loop and Humorist Road.

In Adams?? Co WA, a GYRFALCON was reported in Marsh Unit 2 of Columbia NWR
near the parking lot (along Morgan Lake Road) for the Frog Lake Trail by
Randy Hill this past week. WA DeLorme 53, A-7??.

On the levee ponds in Lewiston, Nez Perce Co ID on 2 Dec were 2 EURASIAN
WIGEONS and 2 adult BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS according to Keith Carlson.
The wigeons were at Kiwanis Park which is the first parking area along Snake
River Drive south of the blue bridge between Lewiston and Clarkston. The
night-herons were in the usual levee pond near bypass, although someone
needs to remind me which pond is the usual pond is....

Lincoln Co WA was well-birded this past week and produced some nice winter
specialties. On 2 Dec Matthew Moskwik reports an adult gray morph GYRFALCON
on the eastern outskirts of Creston along US 2. He also reports 2 AMERICAN
TREE SPARROWS along Old State Highway Road which runs east-west 1 mile north
of US 2 from Reardan to Davenport. On 7 Dec, Gene and Nadine Lynch saw 8
GRAY-CROWNED ROSY FINCHES on the Old Sunset Highway west of Reardan, 0.5
mile west of the intersection of Mann Road and the Old Sunset Highway. Gina
Sheridan reports a GYRFALCON near the intersection of Mann Road and Four
Corners Road on 7 Dec. Gene and Nadine also report 3 SNOW BUNTINGS along
Williams Road near Creston. Jeff Brown and Mark Houston spotted 40 or so
SNOW BUNTINGS west of Reardan along Detour Road which runs east-west 1 mile
south of US 2 from Reardan to Davenport. Southeast of Davenport along Olson
Road Jeff and Mark found a PRAIRIE FALCON. They also found another SNOWY OWL
along Bennett Road just north of US 2, about 6 miles east of Davenport.

In western Spokane Co WA on 2 Dec, a first winter THAYER'S GULL was on
Medical Lake near Cheney and a MERLIN was at the corner of Betz and 6th
Street in Cheney according to Matthew Moskwik.

Also in western Spokane Co WA on 7 Dec, Gina Sheridan reports a flock of 10
AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS in a weedy field on the northeast corner of the
intersection of Coulee-Hite and Thorpe roads. WA DeLorme 88, D-2.

An adult MEW GULL was in Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane on 24 Nov and 1
Dec according to Jeff Wisman. Jeff also reports seeing, but only briefly, a
small white heron that he presumed to be a CATTLE EGRET in Riverfront Park
on 24 Nov.

On 5 Dec I had a hooting BARRED OWL in my timber 5 miles south of Moscow,
Latah Co ID, on Paradise Ridge. I haven't heard it again.

If you have any questions about birds on the report, call me before 9 pm at
208.883.0943. If you see any of the birds mentioned in this report, be sure
to let me know.

Good birding.

Kas