Friday night (5/23/03) Ken Knittle, Mark Houston and I gathered in
Creston, WA. Early Saturday AM we began our long birding week end at
Swawilla Basin in the SW corner of Ferry County. There we found the
LONG-BILLED CURLEWS Mark had seen earlier this year. Also at that
location were CHUKAR, LARK SPARROW and a WESTERN KINGBIRD on a nest on
the side of a large rock.



>From there we headed up the Sanpoil River to Sanpoil Lake near Republic.
Along this stretch were several NORTHERN WATERTHRUSHES, singing
loudly,and 2 SOLITARY SANDPIPERS.



We headed up to Togo Mtn to camp for the night. This is east of the
Kettle River and close to the Canada border. Along the way we plowed
through a few snow patches on this mountain road 300 until we met our
match. We sat there, stuck in the snow, attempting to accept the
obvious. As we dug our way out, a BARRED OWL called in the distance.
Mark returned the call a couple times and we returned to our dilemna.
I've never before seen 3 serious birders pay less attention to a Barred
Owl. About 1.5 hrs later, Mark's rig was free and the owl was still
calling (laughing?), only much closer by then. At that point, we got a
good look at the bird as well as a few GRAY JAYS that had come in to
annoy the owl.



We camped not far away and headed east on Sunday morning. In the area
around Glasgo Lakes Mark and Ken had a NORTHERN GOSHAWK. Then on to
Colville where we had both WILSON'S and RED-NECKED PHALAROPES on the
STP.



We worked our way north, stopping in the town of Northport. On 8th St
in Northport, we spotted an unusual VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. The head was
white as was most of the body. The back was a little mottled. The
leading edge of the wings was also white. The rest of the wings and
tail were dark. We thought it looked a bit like a snow bunting.
Hopefully, someone with a camera will be able to get photos of this
bird. North of Northport, Mark saw a male AMERICAN REDSTART and Ken and
I saw a female. A RED-EYED VIREO sang here as well. At Deep Lake was a
breeding plumaged COMMON LOON.



Next we drove to Little Pend O'reille NWR where we dipped on
white-headed woodpecker. At Amazon Creek, not far away were several
singing NORTHERN WATERTHRUSHES and we were able to get good looks at a
couple birds.



On to Pend O'reille county where we drove up Harvey Creek in search of a
Harlequin Duck. We ran into snow and had to come back down. But just
after we hit the main road again and were crossing Harvey Creek, Ken
yelled stop as he skillfully spied a female HARLEQUIN DUCK in extremely
swift moving water. We watched as the duck dived over and over into the
water from a rock. There were also several AMERICAN DIPPERS on Harvey
Creek. We looked unsuccessfully for Black Swifts along the Pend
O'reille River. Perhaps it was too early in the season. We camped at
the Mountain Goat Viewing Area north of Metaline (we saw no goats).
Monday morning, not far from our camp site we called in a male AMERICAN
REDSTART for smashingly close up views of this gorgeous bird. A
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH sang at the same time. We had at least 4 BLACK
TERNS at Calispell Lake.



On the return drive we had a GRAY FLYCATCHER in southern Stevens County.
For the trip we saw several BALD EAGLES as well as a GOLDEN EAGLE at the
nest with one chick.



Mammals for the trip include Black Bear, Beaver, Snowshoe Hare, Striped
Skunk and Elk.



It was a good week end.



Marv Breece

Seattle, WA