Subject: [Tweeters] Stevens & Pend Oreille County Birding
Date: Feb 8 21:49:51 2006
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


Today (2/8/06), Tom Munson, Mark Houston, and I birded
up in Pend Oreille and Stevens Counties. Snow cover
was highly variable between localities. The weather
ranged from cold and overcast in the morning to sunny
and nice in the afternoon.

As we traversed southeastern Pend Oreille County, we
ran into a STELLER'S JAY at Lake of the Woods. In
Spring Valley, we heard a NORTHERN PYGMY OWL tooting
and saw about seventy EVENING GROSBEAKS strung out
along the route.

My prediction for finding a my lifer P.O. County
Merlin in the town of Newport came true today. As we
drove into town, we viewed a nice taiga type MERLIN on
a snag.

Mark Houston's promise that we would find a Pygmy Owl
for Tom to photograph came into fruition too. In a
roadside Hawthorne on Cusick Flats, we enjoyed
crippling views of a NORTHERN PYGMY OWL. While a
couple of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEEs came in to harass
the pygmy, Tom took over a hundred pics of the
cooperative little owl

On the Calispell Lake loop, we saw a couple of
NORTHERN SHRIKEs, a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, STELLER'S JAY,
HAIRY WOODPECKER, BALD EAGLEs, and plenty of waterfowl
on the partially open lake. On the lake itself we
noted AMERICAN WIGEON, COMMON GOLDENEYE, NO. PINTAIL,
CANADA GEESE (with two partially albino birds),
CACKLING GOOSE - 3, TUNDRA SWANs, and HOODED & COMMON
MERGANSERs.

On the Flowery Trail Road, we had a GRAY JAY. At the
49 Degrees North, I was pleased to see my Stevens
County lifer CLARK'S NUTCRACKER. In the Colville
Valley south of Chewelah, we found NORTHERN PINTAIL,
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, as well as a copious supply of
MALLARDs and CANADA GEESE.

In the late afternoon, we entered the Gifford
Campground and found it humming with woodpecker
activity. In the burn, we easily saw BLACK-BACKED
WOODPECKER -2, WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER -2, PILEATED
WOODPECKER -1, HAIRY & DOWNY WOODPECKERs, NO. FLICKER,
RB & PYGMY NUTHATCH, and MT. CHICKADEE.

After sunset, we saw a GREAT HORNED OWL perched on a
power line on the West End of the Spokane Indian
Reservation. Finally, in Blue Creek Canyon, we heard a
vociferous NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL (which was Stevens
County lifer for all of us). The Saw-whet was a
wonderful finale to a most enjoyable day of birding.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

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