Subject: [Tweeters] Pend Oreille County Northern Mockingbird
Date: Jun 12 19:58:39 2006
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


After dipping on the Mead Band-tailed Pigeon this
morning (6/12/06), Michael Woodruff and I proceeded up
to the Pend Oreille/Spokane County line to follow up
on the Clay-colored Sparrow and the possibility of
finding Bobolink in Spokane County.

Along Allen Road, we saw several Bobolinks that had
been reported by Matthew Moskwik. In order to
ascertain, where the county line fell, we drove up and
down Allen, Bruce, and Dunn Roads, and determined that
the birds that we had seen thus far were in P.O.
County.

When we failed to find the Clay-colored Sparrow (Allen
Road, 1/4 mile west of Dunn Road), we were becoming a
tad disillusioned. At this spot, we did see a pair of
WESTERN KINGBIRDs on a high tension tower, Chipping
Sparrows, BC Chickadee, and a pair of Spotted Towhees.

Meanwhile both of us had a couple of brief glimpses of
a strange bird near the road. Suddenly, we were gazing
at NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD on a fence post. The Mocker
briefly landed in the road, and then retired to some
nearby shrubbery. After we chased it around for over
ten minutes, it gave us the slip. Fortunately,
Michael was able to take some identifiable photos of
the bird.

Through out the observation period, the Mockingbird
was furtive and silent. For reference sake, it was
perched near the "Timberline Murals" billboard west of
the junction of Dunn & Allen Roads (DL: Pg 105, D-6).
Apparently, this Northern Mockingbird is the first
record for Pend Oreille County.

After backtracking to the Bobolink field, we walked
down a gravel lane that was immediately west of a
large aluminum utility shed. At the point where this
lane was marked "Private Drive" (but fortunately there
was not any no trespassing signs), we realized that we
were on the county line. Our patience was rewarded
when a territorial male Bobolink landed on the county
line fence and proceeded to fly some sixty feet into
Spokane County. It was a great way to add a Spokane
County lifer!

Other birds of note, included a VEERY on the Le Clerc
Road side of the Reservation Marsh, as well as
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, RED-EYED-VIREO, and two dueling
male AMERICAN REDSTARTs on the birdy S. Fork Calispell
Creek bridge. Finally, we found a WESTERN KINGBIRD
nest containing one youngster on a transformer above
the restroom in Cusick Park.

Yesterday (6/11/06), Kim Thorburn and I did some
afternoon birding and saw Western Grebe on the south
end of W. Medical Lake (Spokane Co.); CASPIAN TERN
(Adams Co.); Kim's lifer BURROWING OWL east of Tokio
(Adams Co.); Grasshopper Sparrows at Cow Lake (Adams
Co.) & SW Spokane Co.; Black Terns on Heron Pond
(Spokane Co.),
Cow Lake (Adams Co.), west of Fishtrap along I-90
(Lincoln Co.), and in the Negro Creek drainage on
Belsby Road (Whitman Co.). The Whitman County Black
Tern was my 200th county life species for this
challenging county.

In addition, I was able to whistle up a
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT on Deep Creek (northeast of the
intersection of Euclid & Gordon Roads) for my first
visual on this species in Spokane County. We saw
SWAINSON'S HAWK in the Karakul Hills of Adams County
and a light phased adult Swainson's Hawk east of
Mullinix Road in extreme southern Spokane County.
There were water dancing (courting) Western/Clark's
Grebes on Cow Lake, which were hard to identify
through the heat distortion.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

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