Subject: [Tweeters] ARCTIC LOON, SLATY-BACKED GULL, GYRFALCONs & More - Long
Date: Jan 19 12:43:03 2007
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


While the Sullivans posted a nicely detailed report on
the WOS Waterville Plateau Trip that I attended, I had
some interesting pre-trip solo sightings, and plenty
of post-trip birds. Before I delve into my personal
observations, I want to thank the Sullivans for
working extremely hard on finding the target birds for
the group. I know that the trip partipants were well
pleased with stunning views of winter specialties such
as Bohemian Waxwing, Redpoll, Gyrfalcon, and Snow
Bunting.

On January 12th, I headed up the Timentwa Flats
portion of the Colville Plateau in Okanogan County. As
I drove up alone on the grade on Cameron Lake Road, I
noted a few Horned Larks, but little else. On the
plateau itself, the snow was deep, but the roads were
plowed and snow-packed. The temperatures on the sunny
late afternoon ranged from +7 to -2. Due to the
limited daylight, I was only able to traverse the
southern half of Lake Cameron Road and a several mile
stretch of Timentwa Road.

After passing a shelterbelt of trees, I found my only
raptor on the plateau. Perched on a powerline, there
was dark morph immature GYRFALCON. This bird had a
thin pale supercilium and some minor white streaking
on the nape, a solid dark brown back, a very heavily
mottled breast, and a long jutting tail. When I
creeped up the rig a bit too close, the bird flew off
low to the ground in a typical gyr fashion.

Despondent on failing to turn up a single bird on
Timentwas Road, I was elated as I turned back on to
Cameron Lake Road and ran into a flock of some forty
SNOW BUNTINGs. A couple of these birds already
appeared in alternate plumage with solid black backs.

As the sun set and the temperature fell, I reached the
southwestern edge of the plateau and prepared to
descend the grade. Recalling that Comet McNaught was
visible after sunset, I looked to the west and saw the
comet in all it's splendor. In fact, this comet looked
like a long white icicle from space that was plunging
into a fiery sunset. What gorgeous sight!

On the WOS trip itself, I was quite thrilled to see a
GYRFALCON on two consecutive days. Although I didn't
have a great view of the Gyr flying at a distance on
Dyer Hill, Douglas County, I suspect that it might
have been the same bird that the Sullivans found for
the group on Monday. The subadult Gyr that we had
northwest of Withrop had a strongly barred tail and
lead gray back that was much darker than most full
adult gray morph birds.

At this point, I should mention that my dear friend,
Patricia Lott, was most determined to see her lifer
Sharp-tailed Grouse. After making attempts to see this
bird for several years, she was well overdue.
Fortuitously, Michael Shroeder provided us with
directions to a good site in Okanogan County (see
Patricia's post on this subject for directions).

The net result was that I agreed to extend my birding
trip for several more days to look for the grouse and
to visit the Puget Sound area. Our highest priority
was to see the Sharp-tailed Grouse.

On January 16th, we were briefly excited to see
RING-NECKED PHEASANTS in Water Birches that bordered
Johnson Creek (one drainage east of Scotch Creek). We
felt sure that the grouse would follow suit and we
would see them feeding on catkins in the trees too.

While diligently searching for the grouse in the
Scotch Creek Wildlife Area, we were rewarded with a
large flock of GRAY-CROWNED ROSY FINCHES feeding in a
snowy road cut. In addition, we had several
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKs along Conconully Road.

In Conconully itself, I heard a strange call that
sounded like a cross between a Saw-whet Owl and a
Cooper's Hawk. What could it be? It turned out to be
trickster STELLER'S JAY that surreptitiously imitating
Red-tailed Hawks etc. from a crook of a tree branch.

Before noon, we were enjoying lunch and communing with
a sizable flock of SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. We thoroughly
enjoyed hanging out with these delightful chickens,
and I hope that many Inlanders and Tweets will have a
repeat performance of their own. Of course, Patricia
had finally scored her nemesis bird!

Since we had to be back in Seattle by the evening, we
only took one more planned birding stop on Starr Road
(south of Pateros). Our target was a Douglas County
Western Grebe. As we began scoping through the
waterfowl, a CANYON WREN began calling and flitting
around some utility buildings.

After several minutes, I thought that I had some
resting Western Grebes 1/3 to 1/2 mile out on Lake
Pateros (Columbia River). However, a couple of
minutes of study revealed them to be loons. It was
then that I spied two actual WESTERN GREBEs beyond the
loons.


ARCTIC LOON:
Our objective was to see the Western Grebes and go,
but we had an oddball loon on our hands. Drifting
among four Common Loons was a striking black and white
loon with large snowy white flank patches. In fact,
the high contrast black and white pattern and the
straight thinner bill was reminiscent of a beefy
Western Grebe.

This loon lacked the chinstrap of Pacific Loon and it
had a flatter head. The bill was dark and straight
(thinner than the nearby Commons). It did not have
white arcs around the eyes, nor did it have the jagged
neck pattern of a Common. The dorsal side from the top
of the head and the back were a uniform black color
without any noticeable grayish or browner tones of
Commons or immature birds of any loon species. At this
distance, the size looked comparable to a Common,
which further eliminated the Pacific. As we watched
the bird for half an hour, the dazzling white flank
patches were quite eye riveting at all times, and it
was always easy to relocate this bird. We repeatedly
made reality checks by looking over the nearby Common
Loons (one showed some limited white patches on the
flanks but it was blended looking and the other
features clearly made it a Common).

All of the loons were alert and slowly cruising, but
not diving. We could not check for a vent strap.

In summary, this is a bird that stands out under a
cursory scan. In order to find it, you will not have
to scrutinize and consider subtle differences. The
high contrast black and white pattern and large
immaculate white flank patches are certain to catch a
birder's eye. I am confident that this is a winter
adult ARCTIC LOON.

On our drive up Steven's Pass, we had a close
encounter with a Barred Owl. As we drove through
Peshastin (Chelan County) a BARRED OWL went diving in
front of our car and was obviously in pursuit of prey
along the right shoulder of the road. As I braked and
passed the bird, we heard small thump from the back of
the rig. Since we did not see a dead or injured bird
with our owling torch, we surmised that the owl merely
grazed our vehicle and continued on it's way.

On Wednesday (1/17/06), our ambitious plan was to bird
the highlights of Skagit and Samish Flats, and then
return to Renton for the late afternoon gull
spectacle. With the temperature in the mid to high
thirties, most of the snow was melting around Puget
Sound.

Without proper preparation or directions for westside
birding, we simply started at the Fir Island boat ramp
and looked in vain for Swamp Sparrow, waterthrush, and
redpolls. However, we did see a couple of PINE
GROSBEAKs on the dike trail. Other nice birds included
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, FOX SPARROW, WINTER WREN - 3,
SPOTTED TOWHEE, VARIED THRUSH, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK,
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, PEREGRINE FALCON, and BROWN
CREEPER. On the edge of Conway, we saw a roosting BARN
OWL.

The Samish Flats produced a ROUGH-LEGGED
HAWK,TRUMPETER SWANs, BALD EAGLES, and a couple of
SHORT-EARED OWLs (at the West 90 parking area). One
owl was being harassed by a NORTHERN HARRIER. On
Samish Island we picked up a BEWICK'S WREN,
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, BELTED KINGFISHER, SURF
SCOTER, and BARROW'S GOLDENEYE.

Following a long traffic congested drive to Renton's
famous Mouth of the Cedar River, we pulled into the
parking lot at 4:30 PM. When I grabbed my coat from
the back seat, an interesting warbler with a yellow
rump and distinctive chip note flew out of a large
deciduous tree. Since I was completely fixated on
finding the Slaty-backed Gull, I didn't find until
later that this was the PALM WARBLER that has been
wintering here.

We jammed out to the viewing platform and saw two
birders with their scopes intently focused on
something. This was a good sign! Marv Breece had a
broad smile on his face and asked if I would like to
peer through his scope at the adult SLATY-BACKED GULL.
The other birder present was Art Wang.

For about half an hour we had fantastic views of the
highly cooperative, close-in, Slaty-back. It bathed,
preened, flapped it wings and revealed it's pretty
string-of-pearls (white subterminal spots), and then
roosted for a while. Finally, the Slaty back flew off
into the darkening skies and wheeled around the Boeing
Buildings. We could see the wide white trailing wing
margin too.

Wow! this made a fantastic grand finale for my trip!
Sometimes it pays to be flexible!

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA



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