On Friday (2/23/07), Kim Thorburn and I birded
Washtucna and various sites in western Whitman County.
The weather began foggy on the west plains, but turned
sunny farther south. However, heavy snow showers began
in the afternoon, and on my return to Spokane, the
South Hill had two inches of fresh snow!

In Bassett Park, seven EURASIAN COLLARED DOVEs and
several WILD TURKEYs greeted us. Nothing else was
notable there. Near Hooper (on the Adams County side),
we saw a WESTERN MEADOWLARK, NORTHERN SHRIKE, and a
first year BALD EAGLE.

Our real adventure began when we tried to access
Little Goose Dam from Rock Springs Road. The road
itself was in good condition, but the last two miles
were posted as a "private road' that denied access to
the public. We then detoured over to Camp Road and
became stuck in the mud. Fortunately, we managed to
extricate ourselves, and drove all the way back to the
highway, and took the main route (Hay-LaCrosse Road)
to the dam. There were several ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKs near
Hay.

Obviously, we burned up a great deal of time trying
to pick our way down to the dam. When we finally
arrived at Little Goose Dam, the river was virtually
devoid of waterfowl. I was hoping to find Red-necked
Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser that the Denny's had
seen at this site, but we saw nothing at the dam
itself. On the palisades above the dam, we did hear
both CANYON WREN and ROCK WREN, and saw WHITE-CROWNED
SPARROWs. At this point, the wind was howling down the
canyon.

As we checked many of Riparia wildlife management area
spots along the river, we did see three Bufflehead,
three Canada Geese, and one Ring-billed Gull.

The best sighting on the river was mammalian in
nature. A pair of curious River Otters, kept lifting
themselves out of the water to watch us more closely.
We had a good time viewing these nifty critters.

Heading northward, we saw PRAIRIE FALCON and a WESTERN
MEADOWLARK in LaCrosse, and a GOLDEN EAGLE a few miles
south of Winona. Rock Lake was loaded with AMERICAN
COOTs and Mallards. Through out the day, large flocks
of American Robins were distributed everywhere. A
porcupine was on the north side of Ewan.

In the cattails along Crooked Knee Lake there was a
vociferous MARSH WREN. We had quite a few NORTHERN
HARRIERS scattered along our route. Sheep Lake held
CACKLING GOOSE - 2, CANADA GOOSE, NORTHERN PINTAIL,
and COMMON GOLDENEYEs.

It was nice to get out between snowstorms and see a
few birds.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA



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