After the Woodruffs and I enjoyed views of our Spokane
County life Dunlin skating on the ice this morning
(10/30/06), I decided to check out Sprague Lake and a
couple of sites in Whitman County. The weather was
cold (mid-20s to upper thirties), with a very light
dusting of snow, but clear, sunny, with only a light
breeze.

At Granite Lake (Spokane County), I found an lone,
adult HERRING GULL. Perhaps because the gull was
lonely, it flew eastward and landed with some
Ring-billed Gulls on Willow Lake. Unfortunately, I did
not see any hoped for loons or sea ducks.

While Sprague STP was devoid of any scoters, Sprague
Lake was really hopping! On the Lincoln County side
(from the fishing access), I saw a female RED-BREASTED
MERGANSER with two female Common Mergansers,
Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, Redhead, a single TRUMPETER
SWAN, and an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW feeding on the
ground near the boat launch.

On the southern end of the lake (Adams County) fishing
access), there were thousands of waterfowl to sort
through. Aside from the usual Western Grebes,
cormorants, and dabbling ducks, there was an immature
GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE (off the southeastern end
of Harper Island), a CACKLING GOOSE ( on the north
side of Harper Island), 38 SNOW GEESE (on the
southwestern end of the lake), BONAPARTE'S GULLS 30+
scattered around), an attractive adult THAYER'S GULL
(on the small gull & cormorant roost just south of
Harper Island), HOODED MERGANSER -8 , and an
astonishing alternate plumaged PACIFIC LOON (2/3 of
the way across the lake and north of the 4 Seasons
Resort).

If Michael or one of my other birder companions had
been with me, we probably would have found more
rarities. The sheer number and variety of waterfowl to
sort through was nearly putting me into overload!

On my return drive to Sprague, I picked up one more
Adams County lifer for the day. There were three
WESTERN BLUEBIRDS working the fenceline in the field
on the east side of the road (opposite the Osprey
platform).

Sheep Lake held quite a few waterfowl, but nothing out
of the ordinary. There were the expected Tundra Swans,
Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Ame. Wigeon, Canada
Geese, etc. There were considerably less ducks on
Crooked Knee Lake, but there was a NORTHERN SHRIKE
hunting the shrub-steppe.

Although I was hoping to see the reported Ross's Goose
at Rock Lake, there simply weren't any white geese to
be seen. As a nice compensation, I finally picked my
Whitman County lifer Bonaparte's Gull. In their
typical dainty fashion, three Bonies briefly skimmed
the water's surface and then continued on their
southward journey .

When I arrived at Steptoe Butte, I walked over the
first hard, frozen ground of the season. The picnic
area had a couple of robins but little else. However,
things became much more interesting once I reached the
big timber.

As I rounded a bend along the shady north slope, I
flushed a raptor that conveniently landed on top of
tall Ponderosa Pine. When I first binned the bird
through the curve of my windshield, I though that it
looked like a large Merlin, but on my second look the
bird revealed a broad white supercillium and a very
long tail draped over the pine needles. I was in fact
gazing upon a nifty looked, immature NORTHERN GOSHAWK.
Goshawks are hard to come by in Whitman County, and I
was most pleased to find this bird.

After breaking out of the timber, I immediately
affixed my eyes on yet another accipiter. An adult
COOPER'S HAWK, with well-defined cap, was perched on
top of a power pole.

A couple of hundred meters past the rock quarry, I saw
a flock of 80+ GRAY-CROWNED ROSY FINCHES. The rosies
landed on the road briefly and then flew past me and
disappeared from view. On my drive to the summit of
Steptoe Butte, I encountered two more flocks of GC
Rosy Finches, but they never stayed where I could pull
over and obtain longer views. However, It was fun to
see the rush of silvery wings gliding around the
mountain.

My final Whitman County lifer of the day was SNOW
BUNTING. I had a pair of marvelously tame Snow
Buntings that seemed to want to escort me all the way
from 3/4 of the way to the summit back down to the
quarry. As an added bonus, a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was
kiting over the barren slopes too.

Yesterday's arctic front ushered in plethora of winter
visitors. In fact, I have seen very good variety of
northern finches. Perhaps this will prove to be an
excellent winter season for boreal specialties.

My final stop was at the Rosalia STP. The best bird
here was a lovely pair of HOODED MERGANSERs.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA



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