Tweeters:

Ken Knittle and Marv Breece made their way to Spokane Friday morning, and we
took off for the Pend Oreille country. The river from Newport to Usk held
less waterfowl than we expected, and of course we had to fight the fog.
Calispell Lake and most of the Cusick Flats were in heavy fog, although we
did see a shrike.

North of there at Sullivan Lake the sunshine revealed mountains with a little
snow near their tops. We studied three swans, one adult and two juveniles,
through the scope and decided they were Trumpeters; a nice find. Then they
called as they flew away, and there was absolutely no doubt. Later we
learned from Warren Current that in his time working as a biologist at the
Sullivan Lake office, he never saw swans on the reservoir. Before packing up
four bighorn sheep were spotted across the lake on Hall Mt.

On our way west out of Ione we took the road over Smackout Pass. It was very
dry and very quiet. With an hour of daylight left we checked out the Sheep
Creek area west of Northport, but still didn't see much. After spending the
night in Colville, our luck improved with breezes pushing the fog away down
at the Columbia. At the mouth of the Colville River there were Ring-billed,
California, and Herring Gulls, which is good for this area. A little north
of there at Kamloops Island and the mouth of the Kettle, two large gulls were
harrassing a merganser with a fish. We soon realized one was a Herring, and
the other had the classic wingtip patterns of a Thayer's Gull. Further study
confirmed the identification, with head and bill shape, and eye color. It
was a first record for both Ferry and Stevens counties.

The fine weather continued on up toward Orient and west up the Boulder Creek
road to Deer Creek summit. There at 4600' Marv did the Pygmy Owl toot and we
contemplated the wheezy chickadees off in the spruce. On turning around
there was an immature Goshawk perched right across the road, no doubt
checking out the owl noise. We studied it in great light before it flew
right over us.

Down at Curlew the valleys were fairly quiet, although we did see a
Rough-legged Hawk and a shrike. We decided to check out the burn area from
the Mt. Leona fire of two summers ago, even though none of us had been in the
area before. Going up the St. Peter Creek drainage from north of Curlew Lake
toward the north end of the Kettle Crest, we found an area of mature burned
trees. Going up the hill to check out some tapping, it was all too typical
to find a Hairy Woodpecker, but then a female Black-backed showed herself,
and we felt rewarded. Cassin's Finches were in this area, coming to a
spring, and the spot seems to have great potential for next summer. On this
high south slope in the sun we were shedding jackets.

>From Republic we went down the San Poil, looking at Dippers along the way,
and turned east on Bridge Creek Road. On the way to Twin Lakes near
Inchelium we had great looks at Ruffed Grouse and Blue Grouse sitting on the
edge of the road. The lakes were not close to being frozen over, and held
lots of waterfowl. A Pygmy Owl called, but we couldn't find it. We went
back to Spokane for the night.

On Sunday we drove a lot of miles through fog to Bridgeport. Northeast of
there the Omak Plateau had dense fog and not many birds we could see. You
know it's bad when you take note of two Horned Larks up there. We did have a
flyby of a couple of very possible redpolls while standing on the road, but
couldn't be sure. Back down out of the fog along the Columbia we found Tree
Sparrows along Grange Road. Ken said he considered it the best spot in the
state for the species. That Bridgeport Bar area on the south side of the
river has lots of great habitat for sparrows, but we couldn't find any
rarities.

On down the river to Wenatchee and Confluence Park. A Say's Phoebe flitted
around at the entrance to the Horan Natural Area. We spotted a Snow Geese
flying with incoming Canada's, and later picked out a young White-fronted
Goose with the flock on the river. We stood there for several minutes
looking carefully at each goose as we searched for the previously reported
Brant. Then it came in, all by itself, and settled in with the others. A
great bird for eastern Washington to finish the weekend.

Mark Houston
Spokane
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