After reading Fran's post, I ventured out myself today
(9/23/05). The weather has been mostly sunny, cool,
and just lovely.

My first stop was the rimrock section of Indian
Canyon. There was one LINCOLN'S SPARROW, FOX SPARROW,
and plenty of WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs on hand to greet
me. The white enameled looking stripes on the heads of
the White-crowns were nicely reflecting off the soft
autumnal sunlight and beckoned me to linger for a bit.

Later, I pulled up to the puddles on Ladd Road, I
could see plenty of Horned Larks, Savannah Sparrows,
and a few American Pipits. After I decided to move
into position from the south side of the puddles with
my back to the sun, more birds came in. When I heard
the distinct call of a longspur rattle, I noted a bird
with a bright buffy face that stood out from the
flock. My scope brought into a view the understated
beauty of a LAPLAND LONGSPUR that was getting a drink.

The partial black frame around the bright buffy face
was offset by a pretty pink bill, reddish wing
coverts, and subtle streaking on the back. The
longspur's colors seemed to be in harmony with the
fall harvest that was occurring the surrounding
fields.

Although I only saw one longspur drinking at the
puddle at one time, I believe that there was at least
a second bird too. Another longpur called and flew
into the field to the west. At any rate, the Lapland
Longspur was a Spokane Co. lifer for me and great way
to usher in the fall season.

For the record, I should mention that the Harold &
Karen Cottet, and i made an attempt for the Curlew
Sandpiper on 9/15-9/16. Although this target bird was
no longer present, we did see Larry Schwitters's
interesting godwit that was either a Hudsonian or
possibly (hopefully) a Black-tailed. Kudos to Larry
for finding and really working on the idenity of this
bird.

On Thursday (9/15/05), we saw the BAR-TAILED GODWIT in
the midst of hundreds of MARBLED GODWITs, WHIMBREL,
and WILLETs at Tokeland. A couple of LAPLAND LONGSPURs
were along the shore at Bottle Beach.

On Friday (9/16/05) Bottle Beach held both species of
dowitchers, Semi-palm & BB Plovers, Black Turnstones,
Western Sandpipers, Pacific Loon, and a somewhat
surprising CLARK'S GREBE. The Westport Marina produced
SURFBIRD, WANDERING TATTLER, BLACK TURNSTONES,
Marbled Godwits, and the mystery godwit.

On Wednesday (9/14/05) I made a relatively quick solo
visit to Sprague, Philleo, and Sheep Lakes. At the
north end of Sprague Lake, the best bird was juvenile
SANDERLING (Lincoln Co. lifer). In addition, there
were plenty of Western Sandpipers, Pectoral
Sandpipers, Baird's Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, YR
Warbler, and a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE.

Sheep Lake (Whitman Co.) had four SANDERLINGs at the
north end, and plenty of LB Dowitchers and RN
Phalaropes on the southern reaches.

Finally, the northern tip of the shoreline on Philleo
Lake held a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER (Spokane Co. lifer),
Baird's & Western Sandpipers, and Lesser Yellowlegs.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA




--- Birders13 at aol.com wrote:

> Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 13:17:52 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Birders13 at aol.com
> Subject: [inland-NW-birders]Longspurs
> To: inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu
>
> Jim Acton reported Lapland Longspurs along Ladd Road
> between Hallett and
> Thorpe. I followed his directions this morning and
> found them easily, getting
> the best looks I've ever had of this species.
> The birds are coming to a couple of small
> puddles along the road caused
> by the zimmattc sprinklers. They are in flocks of
> Horned Lark, a few AM
> Pipit, and Savannah Sparrow. Following Jim's advice,
> Brad and I parked near the
> water and waited until birds came in to drink, which
> gave us great looks at all
> the details.
>
> These puddles won't last long, but there are
> hundreds of larks, in the
> general area along with sparrows, pipits, and
> longspurs. If you keep an eye
> out for sprinklers working, it should be possible
> to find puddles along the
> gravel farm roads in the next few days, as farmers
> are now seeding after
> harvest. Water is always a great draw in these dry
> areas.
>
> See WA DeLorme P.88--D/2. Good Luck.
>
> Fran Haywood
> birders13 at aol.com
>

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