Tweets & Inlanders,

Although we had a limited time window to bird today,
Garrett MacDonald and I ventured out to Grant Co. in
hopes of seeing the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper & LBBG.
While enjoying beautiful sunny skies, we found both of
our target birds quite easily.

As we scoped East Beach, we noted LB Dowitchers, one
Black-bellied Plover, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, and one
bird that looked like a probable Sharp-tailed. Since
we were quite a distance from the bird of interest, we
drove to another vantage point to the southwest where
several folks were scanning the beach with a spotting
scope.

As we drove up, we were hopeful that they had our
quarry bird. Terri Pieper and two gentlemen from the
west side had been picking through the shorebirds but
hadn't seen the Sharpie yet. However, after thirty
seconds of scanning with my Questar, I cried out that
I had the SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER in the scope. In full
sun, we had crippling views of the Sharpie as it
preened and bathed. This juvenile bird had broad white
supercilium, bright rufous cap, streaking on the outer
sides of the undertail coverts, peach colored breast
with a small necklace of fine streaking around the
neck, fine streaking on the sides of the breast, no
streaking on the center of the breast, and rufous
edging on the tertials.

After leaving this great bird, we drove up to Sun
Lakes S.P. We noted Common Loons in route, but didn't
really have time to scrutinize them. As we began
scanning the lakeshore along the primitive boat launch
area, we were surprised to see a BOBCAT bound out of
some lakeside shrubbery and dash into a thicket closer
to the hillside. Perhaps the Bobcat was stalking
unwary Mallards along the shore or maybe it was just
thirsty.

As we restlessly picked through some scattered adult
California Gulls, we observed an Osprey diving into
the water beside a very dark gull. Yes, this was the
LESSER-BLACK-BACKED GULL. The back color was heavily
speckled gray and black like the Sibley first winter
illustration. The legs were pink and iris was light
colored. The bill was black with a light colored tip
(rather like a Sabine's Gull). In flight the wings
were blackish with dark greater coverts and inner
primaries. The bird fed alone and was not seen
associating with the Cal. Gulls.

When a small flock of Canada Geese flew over, we
picked out one straggler CACKLING GOOSE. What a great
site!

On our return leg to Spokane, we made a brief stop at
Reardan and found 20+ LB Dowitchers, plenty of
Canvasbacks, Pintails, Ruddies, Gadwall, etc. As a
nice bonus, we saw a pair of BONAPARTE'S GULLS too.

We saw both of these birds between 7:30-9:30 AM. It
was an outstanding day.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA