Joshua and I headed up to Mt Spokane at 6:00 AM this morning in hopes of
finding Fox Sparrow and Blue Grouse. We found both. We found the 1st Fox
Sparrow at the Knob Hill Camp ground.



Beyond Knob Hill, there is another parking area (#32) and a gated trail
across the road (with an adjacent trail just to the right heading up the
mountain). Beyond the gate about 200 yards, there is a smaller trail that
goes left off the main trail (with arrows pointing both ways and a picture
of a bicycle). We walked down this trail about 200 yard and mentioned how
"grousy" this looked - south rim of a mountain - little dryer than other
parts. We came to a cabin and mentioned again that there has got to be a
grouse in here and no sooner got those words out of our mouth and Joshua
spotted a Blue Grouse (or should I say Dusky Grouse) sitting motionless
about 15 feet in front of us on a stump. Beautiful big bird! And he just sat
there for a while.



After sitting and watching us, he hopped down and began to walk towards the
cabin. We repositioned ourselves to see him a little better. At this point,
Mr Grouse entered into partial display mode (no sounds) as he dropped his
wings, fanned his tail and briefly exposed his orangeish - reddish sacs. It
was fun. After a while, he flew about 50 yards up into a tree near the front
of the cabin. There were several Fox Sparrows in this area as well as
numerous Western Tanagers, MacGillivray's Warblers, and a pair of Mt
Bluebirds. Cooper's Hawk called nearby and an Olive Sided Flycatcher was
located just down from the parking area.



After dropping Joshua off, I backtracked to the Peone Wetland where I ran
into Craig and Judy Corder. Craig's sharp eye quickly picked out a
Semipalmated Sandpiper -my first for the wetland and my first for the year
for Spokane County. There was also a Western Sandpiper, three Greater
Yellowlegs, a Spotted Sandpiper and calling Soras and Virginia Rails. We
enjoyed watching a mom Common Merganser carry 10 or so babies on her back.
There were small Pied Billed Grebes nearby as well.



Then I scurried over to Riverside State Park and rousted both Rock and
Canyon Wrens, Gray Flycatcher, Lazuli Bunting, three species of nuthatches,
and Lark Sparrows, Cassin's Finch, and White Thr Swift.



Home before 11:00. I don't do hot weather. 108 species.



Blessings



Terry Little

Mead, Washington

terry at crossoverchurch.info