Hi Tweets,

I spend the day birding with the Mark Mahnke, president of Merrymeeting
Audubon Society, which is near Portland, Maine. He was in Moses Lake to
spend a birding weekend with his brother Jim (who is from Kalispell, MT) and
his sister Darlene who is from Buckley.
The day was an exceptional one with numerous highlights. Quite possibly the
best day of birding that I have had in the county.
Our day started at Soap Lake East Beach. We immediately located three
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER along the beach. While we scoped the BBPL, two other
plovers came in and landed. These two new birds turned out to be AMERICAN
GOLDEN-PLOVER. While we viewed the plovers and took pictures, Mark noticed a
bird flying overhead. The bird was an adult light-morph jaeger! After
comparing notes and observations we determined that the bird was a POMARINE
JAEGER. This ID was based on the strongly bi-colored bill, black
upper-parts, and wing span
After catching our breath we moved on up Soap Lake hoping to re-locate the
jaeger and get some photos. We were unable to re-locate the jaeger.
We then continued on to Blue Lake, which offered 42 Common Loon, a good
number for this site.
Sun Lakes State Park offered the continuing irruption of montane species,
with 2 Brown Creeper and 2 Mountain Chickadee. In addition 2 Red-necked
Grebes fished in the swimming area.
Coulee City Community Park also contained several montane species including
2 more Mountain Chickadee, 6 Cedar Waxwing, and 2 Pine Siskin.
Steamboat Rock State Park Boat Launch offered more of the same with 3 Brown
Creeper, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 3 Black-capped Chickadee, and 2 more Mountain
Chickadee.
North Dam Rest Area had 3 more Mountain Chickadee and a nice view of a
Lincoln's Sparrow.
On the return we searched Soap Lake in vain for the jaeger, and while we
did not find it we did locate a single SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER associating
with a mixed flock of Pectoral Sandpipers and Long-billed Dowitchers at East
Beach. We were able to get some nice photos.
The golden-plovers were not present at East Beach so we went over to West
Beach to try for both the golden-plovers and the jaeger. We were able to
find neither, but we did find 6 SANDERLING.
A fitting end to a fabulous day in Grant County.

Doug Schonewald
Moses Lake, WA
dschone8 at donobi.net