After hearing about the Palm Warbler that Matthew
Moskwik found yesterday, the Cottets and I trekked up
to Pend Oreille County today (9/15/06) and attempted
to refind this bird. It was a beautiful pre-autumn
day with light frost in the morning, and plenty of
sunshine to take away the chill.

Although we searched in vain the Palm Warbler, we did
see plenty of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERs, PINE SISKIN,
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDs, SAVANNAH
SPARROW, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, WESTERN TANAGER
(heard), and numerous WILD TURKEYs in the immediate
vicinity.

As we drove around Elmer Loop, we encountered a large
flock of juncos and Chipping Sparrows. After sifting
through this flock for over ten minutes, I finally
picked out a nice CLAY-COLORED SPARROW. For
comparison sake, we enjoyed viewing the brown-rumped
Clay-colored Sparrow sitting side-by-side with
gray-rumped Chipping Sparrows. While the Clay-colored
was a P.O. County lifer for me, it was a state lifer
for the Cottets.

Our best bird of the day was found roosting on a tiny
island on the Pend Oreille River just off the
shoreline from the Flying Goose Ranch. The bird in
question was an adult COMMON TERN, which happens to be
the first P.O. County record of this species.

Initially, I considered Arctic Tern, but this
particular bird had a rather long bill which had a
dark band near the tip (but the bill tip itself was
not black), and the tail did not protrude beyond the
wings. Anyway, I was ecstatic to be able to add this
species to one of my northeastern county lists.

River Bend Estates still has good mudflat habitat, but
we only saw a Lesser Yellowlegs there today. This area
has good potential for plovers.

To my dismay, the terrific mudflats along the McKenzie
Bridge river crossing has been flooded out. Somehow,
the water level of the river has been significantly
raised from where it was two weeks ago.

In addition, we did not see any shorebirds on
Calispell Lake. Of special note, there were three
WESTERN GREBEs present.

Even though we dipped on our primary target bird, we
saw two excellent county lifers that more than made
for it. Of course, it was gorgeous day to be out
birding too!

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

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