Hello,



I traveled up into Pend Oreille County looking for shorebirds. I was at
Calispell Lake about 7:30 and enjoyed Vaux's Swift, American Redstarts, Red
Eyed Vireos, and a family of 5 Pileated Woodpeckers near Calispell Creek.



All three nuthatches presented themselves where they are usually found on
the north side of the lake in the large Ponderosa Ponds (just across the
road from where the White Pelicans rest).



There were shorebirds on the north side of Calispell Lake. Most of them were
pretty far away. There was a nice flock of peeps, most of them appearing to
be Baird's as best as I could tell. Shorebirds I could identify included
Killdeer (bazillions), Black Necked Stilts (3), many Greater & Lesser
Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpipers (2), Wilson's Phalaropes, STILT SANDPIPERS
(2).



On to the east side of the Pend Oreille River, I bypassed the Kalispell
Indian Reservation as the reservation appeared to be in pow-wow mode. The
marsh at River Bend has been drained again this year which is very
disappointing. I've had great shorebirds here in the past. At the Flying
Goose Ranch however, the shorebirds were pretty good. Peeps seen were
Western, Baird's, and Least Sandpiper. Also, there were Greater & Lesser
Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipes. Two good
finds were SEMIPALMATED PLOVER (1) and RED NECKED PHALAROPE, neither too
easy to find in P O county (at least for me).



On another note, while I was looking around the Pend Oreille River, my son
Joshua went up early to hike the Shedroof MT Trail at MT Salmo. He came back
with nice pictures of BOREAL CHICKADEE. Lots of good stuff, but no other
mountain rarities to speak of.



Blessings,



Terry Little

Mead

terry at crossoverhchurch.info