After Jim Acton called me to say that he saw a Pacific
Loon on Silver Lake and six Surf Scoters on West
Medical Lake on Thursday, I bolted out the door and
headed out. Since the weather forecast called for rain
this weekend, I wanted to be see the birds today under
drier conditions.

When I arrived at Silver Lake, I immediately saw a
WESTERN GREBE, Horned Grebe, Pied-billed Grebes, and a
basic plumaged COMMON LOON. As I passed the gull spit
half way up the lake, I spotted another loon. Sure
enough, it was the PACIFIC LOON. Not only that, it
turned out that there were a pair of PACIFIC LOONs
that would often emerge quite close together. What a
terrific sighting for Spokane County! As I scanned
the lake, a BLUE JAY was calling from the woods to the
southeast.

On West Medical Lake, there was a small flock of
dainty BONAPARTE'S GULLs working the center of the
lake. Although there were quite a few ducks far out on
the lake (Eared Grebe, Western Grebe, Ruddy Duck, C.
Goldeneye, and Ring-necked Ducks. There was no sign of
the Surf Scoters, but they could be possibly still be
around.

In a little over an hour, I tallied four new Spokane
County birds for myself. Not bad for a little
excursion.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com