Despite the rainy condition on Friday (8/6/4), Joyce
Alonso and I birded the the Le Clerc Road access to
the Pend Oreille River. Our exploratory efforts were
focused on locating migrant shorebirds.

Initially, we worked the area from Usk southward to
the Idaho state line. There were some promising
mudflats at the junction with Indian Creek road, but
we only saw a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted
Sandpiper, and Killdeer. Pioneer Park offered more
sandbars with loafing gulls and cormorants, but the
only migrant shorebirds were again Lesser Yellowlegs.

After U-turning at the state line, we headed back up
north. Although we were looking forward to birding
Flying Goose Ranch, there was a yellow sign on the
fence that stated "No Entry & No Trespassing". I
thought this was supposed to be open to the public,
but obviously that is no longer the case.

We did visit Manressa Grotto and easily observed a
family of BUSHY-TAILED WOODRATS. The male had an
incredibly long-tail that was at least as long as the
body and looked pure white on the underside. The mom
woodrat closely escorted a baby along a crevice. We
saw another adult male woodrat and nest on the
opposite (left) side of the grotto too.

I should mention that we could smell them, before we
could see them. The interior of the grotto is a midden
with several nests in the far corners. One of the
nests contained a bottle rocket. These "packrats" are
well known for adorning their nest with interesting
objects. As we departed, I left a shiny silver bottle
cap near a nest as gift for the woodrat floor show.

A little farther south we took Dike Road out to an
oxbow of the river. This was the most productive
birding spot of the day. On the rocky spit to the
north, were Western Sandpiper -2 , Least Sandpiper -1
, LB Dowitcher -2 , and many Snipe. Eight Lesser
Yellowlegs and one Greater Yellowlegs were scattered
amongst the numerous eclipsed Wood Ducks. A juvenile
SORA came out of the cattails to feed on the east side
of the dike. As we scoped for shorebirds, a couple of
Black Terns skimmed the surface of the water.

On Calispell Lake, the only thing of note was a
juvenile Bobolink and 45 WHITE PELICANS. Lesser
Yellowlegs were the only migrant shorebirds in
evidence.

Although we didn't turn up any great Asian rarities,
we certainly did enjoy the day.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

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