Birders,

This morning Richard Mooney and his son Connor, Trevor Forder, me and my
brother Connor went birding in Salmon Arm. I figure I might as well move
there since the amount of gas I buy to get there could pay for a small
house! Before leaving home we scanned through about 400 gulls in the field
behind my house. In the flock was one ad. basic THAYER'S GULL. We left
Kelowna at about 7:15 AM and saw little on the drive to Salmon Arm. Our
first stop was Christmas Island. From there we walked 4 km N. along the
foreshore to the Raven Subdivision. The birding was excellent!

Trail from Christmas Island parking area to Raven Subdivision

The first section of the walk from the parking lot to Christmas Island was
fairly quiet, with the usual Black-capped Chickadees, a Mountain Chickadee,
an Orange-crowned Warbler, Marsh Wrens, Song Sparrows, 2 calling Virginia
Rails, and some Red-winged Blackbirds. The waters around the island had a
few Western Grebes and a nice ad. CLARK'S GREBE! It was on the S. side of
the island. While everyone else walked around the island, and found about 6
Long-billed Dowitchers on the small pond at the N. tip, I continued along
the path towards the N. About 700 meters N. of the island near a small
waterfall I found a calling SWAMP SPARROW. After a brief search I found the
bird and got nice looks in the scope. I called the others on my cell phone
and they were somewhat interested and began slowly wandering around the
island before heading my way to see the Swamp. About 20 minutes later and
about 1 km N. of the island, right along a wooden boardwalk I found a first
year HARRIS'S SPARROW! With news of this find the others, especially
Richard, began running towards me. When they finally arrived they all
eventually got good looks at this rare sparrow. It was mixed in with a flock
of White-crowned, Lincoln's and Song sparrows. Another nice find near
Christmas Island was an imm. NORTHERN SHRIKE. A few Yellow-rumped Warblers,
Orange-crowned Warblers and Common Yellowthroats lingered in the marsh and
trees along the pathway.

Waterbirds in Raven's Bay were plentiful! Look at these numbers:

CLARK'S GREBE 1 (another ad)
Western Grebe 100
Red-necked Grebe 1
Horned Grebe 10
Pied-billed Grebe 7
Common Loon 8
Gadwall 150
American Wigeon 100
Greater Scaup 300
Lesser Scaup 10
Green-winged Teal 50
Redhead 150
Mallard 60
Northern Shoveler 1 male
Common Merganser 10
Hooded Merganser 10
Canvasback 1 female
Ring-necked Duck 200

We then headed for the Nature Park at the foot of Narcisse Road:

AMERICAN AVOCET 7 (getting very late! I don't know if AMAV has ever been
recorded this late in the interior!)
Long-billed Dowitcher 50
Black-bellied Plover 6
Pectoral Sandpiper 30
Canada Goose 200 (including 4-5 birds that may have been Cackling Geese.
They were about 30 percent smaller than the other CAGOs and were darker. One
had pale band around base of the neck.
Bald Eagle 4 (3 ad. 1 first yr)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
HARRIS'S SPARROW* 1 imm.
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Pine Siskin 20

That's about all,

Chris Charlesworth
Kelowna, BC

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