Subject: [Tweeters] North Central WA Weekend
Date: Jun 19 02:51:43 2007
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


Leaving Spokane on Saturday (6/16/07) afternoon, Kim
Thorburn and I were off to the north central counties
for a nice birding weekend. Our day started off with
sunny breezy conditions in Stevens County, but we were
later met with isolated mountain showers in the Kettle
River Range of Ferry County. On Sunday (6/17/07), the
early morning hours in Republic were wet with a light
steady rain. Fortunately, clearing and partly cloudy
conditions were the rule in Okanogan County. Overall,
temps were cool (low 40's to low 60's).

On the north side of the river above Fort Spokane
(Stevens County), we hit a birdy spot .8 miles east of
Hwy 25 on the first gravel road that one encounters
after crossing the bridge. The habitat on these steep,
xeric, south facing slopes is open Ponderosa Pine with
brushy patches of choke cherry, snowberry, and
sections of bitterbrush. The gravel road (I don't
recall the name), is on a broad terrace that is above
the steep brushy slope to the river and below the base
of the rugged basaltic cliffs.

It was here that we found a singing BEWICK'S WREN,
GRAY FLYCATCHER, YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, W. WOOD PEWEE,
SPOTTED TOWHEE, PYGMY NUTHATCH, ROCK WREN, CHIPPING
SPARROW. The Bewick's Wren (a rarity for the county),
was furtive and allowed only brief glimpses from the
choke cherry thicket at the base of the cliffs.

One of the reasons that I chose this particular route
is that I like to check Colville Flats. The Colville
Flats has some of the best viewable sand and gravel
bars favored by roosting gulls.

This time I was hoping to find terns or perhaps a
Franklin's Gull. Scanning the inlet and the sand bars,
we turned up BALD EAGLE -3, BANK SWALLOW, CALIFORNIA
GULL and a few RING-BILLED GULLs, but no black headed
gulls or terns. There wasn't any waterfowl to be seen.


Pulling back onto the highway, I suddenly spotted a
CASPIAN TERN flying over the inlet that we had just
been scanning. After making a frantic turn around, we
chased three CASPIAN TERNs that were flying down river
past Rickey Point. One the the terns obliged my county
listing fantasy by veering westward off Rickey Point
over to the Ferry County side. It was certainly nice
to pick up Caspian Tern for both Stevens and Ferry
Counties!

Our next stop was in Canyon Creek Campground (Ferry
County). In the dense riparian undergrowth, there were
singing VEERY, RED-EYED VIREO, YELLOW WARBLER, and an
AMERICAN REDSTART. From the all too brief views of the
redstart, it looked like it was a first year male.

Since we awoke to rain on Sunday (6/17/07), I decided
to head farther west into the rain shadow country
around Oroville. West of Wauconda (Okanogan County) ,
there were conspicuous YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDs and
WILSON'S SNIPE in a small wetland.

A welcome wagon of BOBOLINKs greeted us at the
junction of US 20 & Aeneas Valley Road. Both MOUNTAIN
& WESTERN BLUEBIRDs dotted the fencelines of Aeneas
Valley Road. Sparrow-wise, we saw SAVANNAH, SONG,
VESPER, and CHIPPING.

In the Lyman Lake area, we saw WESTERN TANAGER,
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, HAIRY
WOODPECKER, CASSIN'S FINCH, TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, GRAY
JAY, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD,
CASSIN'S VIREO, and CLARK'S NUTCRACKER. At Lost Creek,
we enjoyed views of WARBLING VIREO and a wet looking
RUFFED GROUSE. Some agitated robins flushed out an
immature NORTHERN GOSHAWK.

At MP 2 in the Okanogan National Forest (West Fork
Sanpoil River, Okanogan County), there were at least
half a dozen waterthrushes singing from the swampy
woods. One NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH put in a vocal
performance from a bare-limbed willow, and gave us
nice views for almost five minutes.

Additionally, we saw MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER, YELLOW
WARBLER, NASHVILLE WARBLER (exhibiting it's red crown
patch), GREAT BLUE HERON, HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER, WILLOW
FLYCATCHER, GRAY CATBIRD, VEERY, NO. ROUGH-WINGED
SWALLOW, BELTED KINGFISHER, and a territorial male
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD.

In the rocky foothills east of Tonasket, we saw
WHITE-THROATED SWIFT, VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW, and CLIFF
SWALLOW. Better yet, the rain had completely stopped.

Several miles south of Loomis and at the northern
border of the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, we were
pleased to see a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, and LAZULI
BUNTINGs. On Connor's Lake , there were RING-NECKED
DUCKs, AMERICAN WIGEON, and BULLOCK'S ORIOLE. On
Spectacle Lake, there were OSPREY, RED-NECKED GREBEs
and PIED-BILLED GREBE.

Perhaps due to the unsettled weather, we saw dozens of
COMMON NIGHTHAWKs from Spectacle Lake and all the way
up along the Similkameen River north of the obviously
well-named town of Nighthawk. Another common river
denizen, was LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. A couple of COMMON
MERGANSERs were on the river too.

At the south end of Palmer Lake, there was a crow
being harassed by both WESTERN KINGBIRDs and BULLOCK'S
ORIOLEs. The irrigated meadows along Chopaka Road held
RING-NECKED PHEASANT, WESTERN MEADOWLARK, and three
LONG-BILLED CURLEWs.

Even though we couldn't find any Clay-colored Sparrows
in the Ellemeham Draw, we did see ROCK WREN, BREWER'S
SPARROW, VESPER SPARROW, SPOTTED TOWHEE, HOUSE WREN,
RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, FLICKER, RED-TAILED HAWK,
BLUE-WINGED TEAL, REDHEAD, MALLARD, and COMMON
GOLDENEYE.

By early evening, we had arrived at Lost Lake
Campground in the Okanogan Highlands. While we did
find an active PILEATED WOODPECKER nest and HAIRY
WOODPECKERs, we did not see any of the specialties
such as Three-toed Woodpecker or Williamson's
Sapsucker. Meanwhile, a bounding SNOWSHOE HARE made an
appearance on a national forest road, and we found a
lone WILSON'S PHALAROPE on some creek mudflats south
of Bonaparte Lake.

After dark, we did a little owling back in Ferry
County. Sherman Pass proved to be too windy, but it
was calmer on the leeward side of the mountains. West
of Camp Growden CCC, I called in a pair of NORTHERN
SAW-WHET OWLs. Both of the owls were emitting a
strange, grindy cicada-like call. While this call does
sound rather like a saw being sharpened on a whetstone
(hence the name Saw-whet), this is the first time that
I have ever actually heard it. Anyway, it was the
perfect ending to a fun trip!

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA



____________________________________________________________________________________
Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection.
http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/norton/index.php