Friday, I headed up to Creston by way of Texas Lake in Whitman County where there was a lone Forster's Tern and the Clay-colored Sparrow was vocal 2 miles east in the Big Sage just east of the trees and up on the hill.

Saturday morning Mark Houston, Marv Breece and myself birded Stevens County starting at the southwestern most point (Fort Spokane). A Yellow-breasted Chat got us off to a good start. We had some quality birds just above the river north of Fort Spokane such as White-headed Woodpecker which seemed far south, also a Lewis's Woodpecker nest that Mark had staked out, a Solitary Sandpiper sharing a mud hole with a Green-winged Teal--getting late for both, Gray Flycatchers in the pines, Lark Sparrows again staked out by Mark on a grassy rocky knoll, and a Bewick's Wren down along the river for a rare county sighting.

We headed north over the Cedona-Addy Road with quality birds such as Chestnut-backed Chickadees which seemed far south of their normal areas for Stevens County. A couple of Turkeys were around a small pond and nearby on another pond were Eared Grebes. The sewer ponds at Colville had Red-necked Phalaropes which is good for spring and much more expected in late summer. A lone Great Blue Heron flew north of Colville--Herons are tough in this valley. Much more common in the Pend Oreille Valley farther east. After chasing down a singing American Redstart we streaked north to Northport which is the best part of Stevens County. The sun was low so we didn't have much time, but timed it just right to see hoards of Black Swifts wheeling around over our heads along the Boundary Road. This area is going to produce some eastern passerines like warblers, vireos, etc. It just looks that good-and no one birds it! This Boundary Road follows along the east side of the Columbia River north of Northport clear to the border before it circles east and then south to Deep Lake. Tunderstorms were putting a lot of water on the ground, but we finally found a dry patch under some trees along Sullivan Creek just below Mt. Salmo. Our total for Stevens County was 130 species for the day. Could have added more birds by hitting the high county and night birding. Makes one think 150 is possible.

In the morning we birded Mt. Salmo area out as far as we could get up there due to drifts of snow. In blowing snow Marv called in a flock of Boreal Chickadees looking for the Pygmy-Owl they thought they were hearing. A few minutes farther up the hill were Mountain Chickadees. Probably about 3 more weeks before the snow drifts are gone. Not much activity except for some snoopy Gray Jays. After back down along the east side of the Pend Oreille River birds were more active and vocal. 2 California Quail darted across the road and our first Red-eyed Vireo for the trip sang in some tall trees back off the road. Over a good looking swampy area a Black-necked Stilt flew and we could hear another calling. Calispell Lake was high and just the normal stuff such as Black Terns. We worked our way north to check out Lime Creek Falls for swifts. Last year we had tried, but found out we were off one ravine. This time it paid off when Marv yelled swifts and the first one I spotted was a White-throated while the rest were Blacks. Vaux's Swifts too were flying nearby over the forest with a small swallow flock. Never had any of us seen all three swifts in one area. The White-throated looked out of place and may have just been hanging out with the Blacks as we couldn't find any others. We could hear the falls below us, but to see the falls best one needs to come in by boat. This is about 3 miles south of the border. We tried for Great Gray Owls, but the rain was soaking us and everything else too. We finally gave up and headed over to Flowery Trail to sleep as it was south of the worst of the rain. The rocks even seemed soft after thinking what we might have had to sleep through. Our Sunday total was 98 species just in Pend Oreille Co.

First thing we spotted the next morning down the road was a large bull moose running for cover when he heard our car. We found a nice muddy looking pond on Kirchan Road which crosses the valley just north of Meadows Road. Two American Avocets were playing hard to see as they are quite rare in this valley. A beef farmer came by who owned the fields and told us about having Cattle Egrets a few years back. It sounded like this pond was just right for shorebirds in August. This pond was just south of this gravel road.

On my way home today I tried for the Tricolored Blackbirds, without success. I did however run up Rock Creek in Klickitat County and had close up views of Ash-throated Flycachers. This was approx. 6.3 miles north of Hwy 14 just south of a white with orange top gas line number 1117. This is a very reliable spot to see these Myiarchus type Flycatchers here in Washington.

Ken Knittle
Washington Birder newsletter
2604 NE 80th Street
Vancouver, WA 98665
mailto:washingtonbirder at hotmail.com<mailto:washingtonbirder at hotmail.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20040531/d4029175/attachment.htm