Although the official season may still be autumn, the
weather here in the Inland NW, has been decidedly
winterlike. With daytime highs in the low 20's and
lows in the teens and single digits, this last week
seemed much more like January than November-early
December. Lately, freezing fog has created hoar frost
that encrusts trees, fencelines, and power lines with
an thick icy lace.

On Sunday (12/03/06), Kim Thorburn and I birded the
Palouse of Whitman County and a bit of southern
Spokane County. While some welcome sunshine reflected
over the snow sculpted landscapes, winter birds seemed
to be enticed into being a bit more conspicuous.

Some of our birding highlights included: seeing a pair
of EURASIAN COLLARED DOVEs on Railroad Street in
Fairfield (Spokane Co.); a dozen SNOW BUNTINGs mixed
in within hundreds of Horned Larks and a couple of
AMERICAN TREE SPARROWs in a brushy ditch- two miles
north of Tekoa; VARIED THRUSH in Tekoa and another in
Palouse; Red-winged Blackbird in Willard (Whitman
Co.), NORTHERN SHRIKE & ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK in Oaksdale
(Whitman Co.); TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE in Palouse; plenty
of pheasants and Gray Partidge scattered through the
hinterlands; RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET and an AMERICAN
DIPPER (Whitman Co. lifer) in Reaney Park/Pullman;
two WINTER WRENs in Rose Creek Nature Preserve; and
CEDAR & BOHEMIAN WAXWINGs in Pullman.

Unfortunately, we dipped on the reported Anna's
Hummingbird in Pullman. It has not been seen for
several days.

Kamiak Butte was cold, but there were Mt. Chickadees,
Pygmy Nuthatches, and White-breasted Nuthatches around
to liven things up. However, we did not see any rare
northern finches here.

Finally, we finished up the day with fantastic views
of a pair of SHORT-EARED OWLS near Mockonema (three
miles west of Colfax). As we watched, one owl dined on
a vole on a snowy hillside.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA



____________________________________________________________________________________
Need a quick answer? Get one in minutes from people who know.
Ask your question on www.Answers.yahoo.com