After receiving word from Terry Little that he had
seen a Ross's Goose on the River Bend Loop (Pend
Oreille County) yesterday, Mark Houston, Karen Mobley,
and I trekked up today (Sunday, 5/21/06) to see it.
Fortunately, there was no rain today and the temps
were mild (50-72).

In the early morning, there was considerable fog in
the river valley, and I was feeling some trepidation
on whether we could view our target bird at longer
range. As we worked our way up to River Bend Estates,
we saw quite a few Yellow Warblers, Common
Yellowthroats, Red-naped Sapsucker, Hammond's
Flycatcher, and Western Wood Pewees. We heard Western
Tanager, Bullock's Oriole, Cassin's Vireo, Warbling
Vireo, and Black-headed Grosbeak. Flying Goose Ranch
offered WILSON'S PHALAROPEs, Wilson's Snipe, a fairly
quick view of a flyover BLACK-NECKED STILT (P.O.
County lifer for me), and heard only Sora and Virginia
Rail.

On the north end of the River Bend Loop (DL: Pg. 105,
A6), there is a large low marshy meadow that had
scattered Canada Geese standing out in the tall grass.
However, we did not see any white geese. As the fog
continued to lift, a bit more sun poked through. Since
we could just see the heads of more geese farther to
the west, we drove around the bend to a better vantage
point.

Finally, I could see the head of white goose through
the tall grass. As it came into a view, I called out
Ross's Goose! As we watched the bird, it made a couple
of short pop-up flights, and we could view the whole
bird. The ROSS'S GOOSE then joined several Canada
Geese in flight and proceeded northward. Afterwards,
we could not relocate it. The Ross's Goose was a P.O.
County lifer for both Mark and I. In addition, we saw
several BOBOLINKs along the loop road and a CALIFORNIA
QUAIL (scarce in P.O. County) on a residential street.


Although we attempted to find House Wren, Bewick's
Wren, and Ring-necked Pheasant (rather mundane birds
that are tough to find in P.O. County), we couldn't
find any. However, we did refind the WESTERN KINGBIRD
(P.O. Co. lifer for Mark) at the Cusick substation. We
saw more BOBOLINKs around Cusick.

While searching for Barrow's Goldeneye on both North
Skookum and South Skookum Lakes, we heard several
Northern Waterthrushes, but we only saw Common
Goldeneyes. West of Cusick, on Danforth Road, we found
a "chebeking" LEAST FLYCATCHER. This bird was in some
tall cottonwoods directly across the street from a
fancy maibox with the name "Perry" (DL:105. B6).

In the early afternoon South Fork Calispell Creek
Bridge had singing GRAY CATBIRD, AMERICAN REDSTART,
and NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH around it. Once again, this
site remains a very birdy spot.

Our pleasant Sunday drive produced some very good
birds, and it was
good to welcome some of favorite avian friends back.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com