Subject: [Tweeters] Grand Coulee Area Snowy Owls
Date: Dec 17 14:52:25 2005
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


On Friday (12/16/05), Gary Kuiper, Cindy McCormack,
and I birded across the frozen landscape of northern
Grant County. Temperatures ranged from 9 to 21 degrees
through the day. While overcast conditions prevailed,
and the plateau was cloaked with freezing fog.

Cindy spotted our first bird of the day along U.S. 2,
which was a GREAT HORNED OWL. As we drove the
secondary roads on the Grand Coulee Plateau, we noted
several ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, and small flocks of HORNED
LARKS. Just west of Almira Road, on McKay Road (44 NE)
on the Lincoln County side, Gary spied a BARN OWL
peering at us from a hole in a roadside haystack.

As we crossed over the Grant County line on 44E, a
SNOWY OWL became visible like a ghostly apparition out
of the fog. The immature bird was perched on a power
pole, starred at us for a bit, then drifted back into
the gloom of the ice fog. The bird's location was DL:
Pg. 85 C8.

A while later, we found a second Snowy Owl just west
of the junction of V NE and 50 NE (six miles north of
the first snowy, DL: Pg. 85 B8). This second bird was
a much darker immature bird.

Our final SNOWY OWL sighting was on V NE. We thought
that this was probably the same bird we had seen on 44
NE. This owl was busy preening it's feathers to remove
the hoar frost that had encrusted the bird.

As we continued west on 50 NE, a half dozen SNOW
BUNTINGs were mixed in with a flock of Horned Larks.
However, we only saw on one possible Rosy Finch, and
that bird's ID could not be confirmed. Unfortunately,
we were unable to find the large flocks of Rosy
Finches that often occur on this cold tableland.

In a farmyard along road W NE, We saw ten GRAY
PARTRIDGEs. As we descended the plateau into Grand
Coulee, we viewed a Northern Shrike.

The Grand Coulee City Park held an unexpected
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, but not much else. The apple
trees adjacent to the park's eastern border held an
attractive male VARIED THRUSH. From the top of nearby
tall spruce tree, an alert MERLIN surveyed the town.

Since Gary had made arrangements for us to visit the
restricted area at the base of Grand Coulee Dam, we
were allowed to inspect the rocky shoreline for a
Grant County Dipper. When we arrived, a
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL cruised over the rim of the dam,
and BALD EAGLEs were rarely out of sight. Within five
minutes, were enjoying wonderful views of a DIPPER
bobbing along the wet rocks. The Dipper was actually
singing as if were a warm spring day!

Gary guided us to another birdy spot in the town of
Coulee Dam that was just inside Douglas County. At
this site, we saw a singing TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE,
DOWNY WOODPECKER, another RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, and
multitude of AMERICAN GOLDFINCHEs. A CANYON WREN
called from the surrounding cliffs.

After coming up empty for Bohemian Waxwings in Grand
Coulee, we finally found a flock of 200 Bohemians on
Electric Blvd. in Electric City. The flock of waxwings
perched in a large weeping birch tree and would come
down in unison and feed on the berries of a nearby Mt.
Ash.

While checking the residential streets of Electric
City, we discovered a first winter NORTHERN SHRIKE on
the edge of town. Our stops at the Electric City Golf
Course, Coulee Playground, and the Sunbanks Waterland
Resort, didn't turn up anything unusual. Fortunately,
we did flush out a couple of BARN OWLs from the
Russian Olive thickets north of the Grand Coulee Dam
Airport.

At the end of the day, we spent quite a bit of
unproductive time in Northrup Canyon. Other than a few
BLACK-BACKED CHICKADEEs, and GC KINGLETS, a DOWNY
WOODPECKER, and fleeting glimpses of a vocal COOPER'S
HAWK, it was very quiet. My less than wonderful,
Saw-whet Owl imitation failed to elicit any real
Saw-whet Owls to respond. After dark, I resumed my owl
calls, but the roosting BALD EAGLESs bugling call was
the only bird sound to pierce the silence.

We began the day with a difficult target list of
birds, and I ended up with three Grant County lifers
(Dipper, Bohemian Waxwing, and Barn Owl). Although we
dipped on some hoped for species, we had a most
enjoyable birding trip. Simply seeing beautiful Snowy
Owls makes any birding trip a delightful success!

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

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