Subject: [Tweeters] Douglas County Dunlin
Date: Nov 5 22:44:28 2007
From: Gina Sheridan - gsherida8502 at yahoo.com


As if there haven't already been quite a few report
posted on Douglas County, I still had to file our trip
from last Friday (11/02/07). With cool temps (21-46
degrees) and partial sunshine, Kim Thorburn and looped
through the southern half of the Waterville Plateau.

At the southwestern corner of Banks Lake/Dry Falls
(Douglas Co.), we had four HORNED GREBES, three COMMON
LOONs, but strangely, there were no gulls to be seen.
On the southern shore of Stallard Lake, we were
thrilled to see six DUNLIN (county lifer), a
CALIFORNIA GULL, and a fly by of two SANDHILL CRANEs.
Haynes Lake hosted a COMMON MERGANSER, AMERICAN
WIGEON, LESSER SCAUP, BUFFLEHEAD, RING-NECKED DUCK,
CACKLING GOOSE - 2 , CANADA GEESE - 60+, and TUNDRA
SWANs - 70+ (county lifer). A nice PRAIRE FALCON
conveniently perched on a nearby power pole so that we
could admire him.

Along the shoreline of Bennett Lake, we were
immediately greeted by a couple of accommodating
AMERICAN TREE SPARROWs. On the water there were
GREEN-WINGED TEAL, RING-NECKED DUCK, LESSER SCAUP,
COMMON GOLDENEYE -1, HOODED MERGANSER -1, AMERICAN
WIGEON, GADWALL, AMERICAN COOT, TUNDRA SWANs, and a
very late GREATER YELLOWLEGS.

As for more widespread species that we encountered
throughout the day, we had at least nine NORTHERN
SHRIKEs, thirteen ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKs, eight AMERICAN
KESTRELs, six RED-TAILED HAWKs, With no snow cover, we
ran into only a few flighty, small, flocks of HORNED
LARKs, but no longspurs or snow buntings.

At the Waterville STP, we found a PRAIRE FALCON that
was being harassed by Raven. The small number of
waterfowl on the lagoons were highly skittish and
flushed off quickly.

One of my big personal county targets of the day was
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch. Although we diligently worked
both Moses Coulee and Corbaley Canyon for this
species, we still came up with zilch. At least in
Corbaley, we did see some STELLER'S JAYs, DE JUNCOs,
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEEs, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, and
several TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIREs. As a bonus, one of the
solitaires was in fine song.

Finally, on Jamieson Lake, we saw good numbers of
AMERICAN WIGEON, RING-NECKED DUCK, REDHEAD, AMERICAN
COOT, MALLARD, GADWALL, BUFFLEHEAD, LESSER SCAUP, as
well as a HORNED GREBE, WESTERN GREBE -3 (not that
easy for the county), GREEN-WINGED TEAL - 12,
CANVASBACK - 6, NO. HARRIER, and COMMON MERGANSER -8.

After reading Mike Denny's report, I wish that we
hiked into Grimes Lake for the Trumpeter Swans and
visited Central Ferry for the Gray Jays, but we still
felt quite fortunate to have seen some nice birds.

As a sidenote, I saw Comet 17P/Holmes this evening.
>From town with my eyes not yet adjusted to darkess, I
easily picked it by scanning with my binoculars. In
the early evening, it is hanging out in the
north/northeastern sky between the constellations of
Perseus and Cassiopia. This particular comet exploded
a couple of weeks ago, and the brightness magnitude
has increased our viewing pleasure.

Gina Sheridan
Spokane, WA

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