Subject: [Tweeters] Boreal Owl & Chickadee in Pend Oreille County
Date: Sep 26 22:03:28 2004
From: gina sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


On Saturday (Sept. 25, 2004), Matthew Moskwik, Garrett
MacDonald, and I ventured up Mt. Salmo to see Boreal
Owl. En route, we noted a Western Grebe on Sullivan
Lake. The evening weather on Salmo was clear, mild,
and moonlit.

Within just over a two period (8-10PM), we had nine
seperate Boreal Owl contacts. Most of the owls chirped
out the typical "skew" notes, but a couple of them
embelished their repetorie with more protracted
whining sounds. We spotlighted one BOREAL OWL in full
view for at least five seconds. A second owl could be
seen in flight against the moonlit sky. Like little
ghosts of the north woods, all the others slipped away
completely unseen. At any rate, I thought that is was
a real treat to see a Boreal Owl on my birthday.

On Sunday (Sept. 26th), we birded around Bunchgrass
Meadows and turned up some pretty good high elevation
specialties. On the bogland "meadows", we saw American
Pipits, Lincoln's Sparrows, and five BOHEMIAN
WAXWINGS. We heard White-winged Crossbills in the
distance, but we never actually saw any. Other birds
that we found in the area included Red Crossbills,
Gray Jays, Stellar's Jays, Varied Thrushes, Juncos,
White-crowned Sparrows, Townsend's Solitaire, Hermit
Thrush, both kinglets, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Ruffed
Grouse, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, and MacGillivray's
Warbler.

On the ridgeline road on the south end of Bunchgrass
Meadows, we had some of our best birds. An immature
SWAINSON'S HAWK was a big surprise for us in this
county. After running into numerous Mountain
Chickadees, we saw one lone BOREAL CHICKADEE along the
road. In addition, we heard (and I saw) one female
PINE GROSBEAK calling from the top of a spruce tree.

We had a nice male SPRUCE GROUSE gravelling in the
road and pecking at Huckleberries along the shoulder.
Garrett shot over seven minutes of digital footage of
this absurdly tame bird. After we drove past the
grouse (perhaps we should name it Bruce the Spruce
Grouse at this point), it actually followed us around
the bend and behaved like a pet puppy that wants
attention. This was a lifer for Garrett and only the
second Spruce Grouse that I have ever seen in the
state.

At a turnaround point farther down the road, we came
to a clearing that contained a pair of BLUE GROUSE.
Suddenly, a couple of guys in a pick up began shooting
at the grouse. One of the grouse hunters said that
these were the first grouse that they had seen all
day. Evidently, they did not see Bruce (yay!). Since
they kept shooting wildly, I don't think that they
actually hit the Blues either.

If you bird in the area, please be aware that there
are plenty of trigger happy hunters up there. I should
mention that it requires quite a bit of patience for
these boreal species. Sometimes it seems that there
are no birds around and it can be completely quiet at
times. However, there are indeed good birds up there,
and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA


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