Subject: [Tweeters] Mew Gull in Ferry County
Date: Feb 19 17:48:19 2007
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com
Kim Thorburn and I ventured into a foggy Saturday
morning (2/17/07), and headed out to northern Lincoln
County. Our main interest was to bird southwestern
Ferry County, but we wanted to first check out Hawk
Creek Canyon in Lincoln County.
Once we descended from the cloud deck on the west
plains, we began to see a few interesting birds in
lower Hawk Creek Canyon. Aside from a NORTHERN SHRIKE
and a few STELLER'S JAYs, the best bird that we saw
was an immature NORTHERN GOSHAWK. At Hawk Creek Falls,
we saw DIPPER and BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, and the usual
suspects.
As a point of interest for Lincoln County listers, the
lower half of Hawk Creek Canyon seems to be magnet
for wintering accipiters. Within the last couple of
weeks, I have seen all three species there.
On our crossing of FDR Lake on the Keller Ferry, the
sun had come out to warm the late winter landscape.
While we pased a couple of Herring Gulls on the
Lincoln County side, we were rather dismayed to
observe that there were no gulls or waterbirds on the
Ferry County side of the river. Fortunately, things
picked up near the junction of Hwy 21 and Swawilla
Basin Road. We saw a HORNED GREBE cruising the lake
shoreline and a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK kiting over the
ridgeline. Both of these species were welcome Ferry
County birds.
While driving through the rugged open county of
Swawilla Basin, we were hoping for partridge, Chukar,
pheasant, or Prairie Falcon. However, we had to settle
for Red-tailed Hawks, Ravens, Horned Larks, a singing
WESTERN MEADOWLARK, and a couple of Bald Eagles.
Fortunately, our luck greatly improved after we took a
unmarked fishing access road to the lakeshore. On the
expansive gravel bars, beaches, and inlets, we found a
good variety of waterfowl and gulls. There were nice
numbers of COMMON GOLDENEYE, REDHEAD, RING-NECKED
DUCK, LESSER SCAUP, and CANVASBACK. As we scoped
through the gull flock that was roosing on the outer
gravel spit, we saw HERRING GULL - 4, RING-BILLED
GULL - 8, CALIFORNIA GULL - 2, and an adult MEW GULL.
We enjoyed excellent side by side comparisons of the
Mew and it's Ring-billed companions. The dark eye,
darker mantle, wide wing crescents, delicate build,
and slender unmarked bill were all readily apparent on
what I believe is the first county record of Mew Gull
in Ferry County.
After backtracking to Hwy 21, we proceeded northward
and saw a few more species along FDR Lake such as
AMERICAN WIGEON, COMMON MERGANSER, and GADWALL. On
Silver Creek bridge (San Poil River), there was an
AMERICAN DIPPER in full song. Since it was singing
from directly under the bridge, it's voice was
ventriliqual and took us some time to pin point the
bird.
On the grade up Silver Creek Road, we detected plenty
of evidence of bark scaling by Black-backed
Woodpeckers. Even though we didn't see any woodpeckers
on this occasion, it will be a great place to recheck
later the season. There were MOUNTAIN CHICKADEEs,
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHes, and RED CROSSBILLS along the
road, but nothing else that was too thrilling.
In the late afternoon, we opted to head west on
Manilla Creek Road and drove into Coulee Dam. En
route, our best bird was a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (Okanogan
County). A feeder in Cole Park (Fiddle Creek in Coulee
City) was attracting plenty of GC Kinglets, BC
Chickadees, and juncos.
As an appropriate last birding stop of the day, we
visited Northrup Canyon (Grant County). On two
previous occasions this winter, I had made an attempt
for Saw-whet Owl, but had failed to find any. Since
the sun had not yet set, we began looking for day
roosting Saw-whets within the dense young Douglas Fir
trees. Although we kept finding white wash, we weren't
finding any owls.
While we were diligently searching our sixth such
roosting tree, I noticed that my gloved fingers were
sticking together from pine pitch. It was now dusk,
and I had left my torch in Kim's rig. At what seemed
to be the last moment of decent light in the last
possible tree, Kim exclaimed "I have one!". Circling
back around the tree to join Kim, I peered up and my
eyes were met by a pair of big eyes on the face of a
cute fluffy gnome.
At last, Kim had her tete a tete with a NORTHERN
SAW-WHET OWL, and I obtained my desired Grant County
lifer. It was terrific finish to a rewarding day of
birding.
Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA
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