Yesterday morning (5/17/06), I made a pre-dawn venture
to a track of BLM land west of Ewan in northwestern
Whitman County. I was hoping to see a Short-eared Owl,
but I dipped on that.

However, I enjoyed watching the sunrise over popular
Rock Lake and having this area completely to myself.
As a result, I saw a pair of WESTERN GREBEs near the
shore and a LARK SPARROW in the grassy edge of the
parking area. Both of these species were Whitman
County lifers for me.

While I was scoping the grebes, a CASPIAN TERN made a
pass over the parking area and a River Otter swam past
me. Meanwhile, hundreds of Cliff Swallows were
gathering mud for nesting material.

As I birded Steptoe Butte, I noted a significant
number of both WILSON'S WARBLERs and BULLOCK'S
ORIOLES. Townsend's Warblers, Dusky Flycatchers,
Black-headed Grosbeaks, and Orange-crowned Warblers
were well represented too. While the brushy upper
slopes of the butte were loaded with singing LAZULI
BUNTINGs, and the rocky outcrops harbored plenty of
ROCK WRENs.

Unlike today, Philleo Lake didn't offer it anything
unusual on it. At least, I did pick up my first
WESTERN WOOD PEWEE for the year.


This morning (5/18/06), Terry Little spent a couple of
hours birding Peone Prairie and the
Holcolmb-Randall-Madison Road Loop. The temps were
very warm and summerlike, but overall birding was
good. Some of the highlights included observing a pair
of AMERICAN BITTERNs engaged in their famous pumping
display, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT up close and personal,
six PECTORAL SANDPIPERs, and WILSON'S PHALAROPEs.
Soras and Virginia Rails called but remained hidden.

On the Holcombe-Randall-Madison Road Loop, we saw
MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER, TOWNSEND'S WARBLER, WILSON'S
WARBLER, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, WESTERN TANAGER, RED
CROSSBILL, WARBLING VIREO, HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER, and
LAZULI BUNTING. Some of the birds on the heard list
were Dusky Flycatcher, Orange-crowned Warbler,
Nashville Warbler, Red-naped Sapsucker, Downy
Woodpecker, House Wren, Bewick's Wren, and Evening
Grosbeak.

Of course, the biggest surprise of the day, was the
ROSS'S GOOSE on Philleo Lake. All of us felt, that
Philleo was the most likely site for a Ross's Goose to
turn up. In fact, we assigned Michael Woodruff the
task of finding it. Obviously, Michael came through
with flying colors!

As a final note, Roger Woodruff and I were gratified
to find a SWAINSON'S HAWK in the place where we had
one last year (extreme southwestern Spokane County on
Mullinix Road, a mile north of the Whitman County
line). This is a tough bird to see in our county, and
we were quite pleased to add it to the county year
list.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

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